A new report from Barracuda shows that AI and phishing-as-a-service are making email attacks more successful.
The 2026 Email Threats Report from Barracuda shows that AI-driven social engineering and phishing-as-a-service are increasing the volume and effectiveness of email attacks. Attackers are using increasingly stealthy methods, such as URLs and QR codes in documents.
An analysis of more than 3.1 billion emails in January 2026 shows that the email threat landscape is evolving rapidly. Barracuda Research emphasizes that organizations must adapt their security strategies to keep up with attackers’ new tactics.
AI and automated attacks dominate
AI plays a central role in the growth of email attacks. By deploying AI-driven social engineering and phishing-as-a-service, attackers can scale their operations and increase the success rate. The report shows that nine out of ten large-scale phishing campaigns use phishing-as-a-service kits.
In addition, attackers are switching to subtler methods. Instead of using malicious attachments, they hide malicious files in URLs or add QR codes to documents. About seventy percent of malicious PDFs contain QR codes that lead to phishing websites.
Account takeover and malicious emails on the rise
More than a third of companies experience at least one account takeover incident every month. This technique allows attackers to send confidential emails from compromised mailboxes, bypassing traditional defense mechanisms.
The analysis also shows that one in three emails is malicious or contains unwanted spam. Nearly half of this activity consists of phishing, while more than ten percent of HTML attachments are malicious.