At the start of a shift, a HorizonPay analyst opens an alert queue that an AI triage tool has already scored. The score helps prioritize work; it does not settle whether the alert represents an incident. At this 1,200-employee fintech, we will map the attacker path before choosing defenses.
An attack chain is the connected sequence from first contact to business impact. AI can make established attacks faster to personalize and repeat. HorizonPay’s chain can begin with T1566 Phishing, move through credential reuse and a mailbox rule, turn into a payment request under T1656 Impersonation, and end with T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer. Voice-cloning requests map to T1566.004 Spearphishing Voice. AI-assisted reconnaissance maps to T1595 Active Scanning, while malware variation maps to T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information. We can trace where this chain crosses identity, messaging, and endpoint defenses.
These paths sit in the detection and triage stages of the incident lifecycle. An AI recommendation is an analyst input, not a disposition. Before an analyst blocks a sender, disables an account, or escalates a payment request, they must verify identity signals, request provenance, and the underlying endpoint or network telemetry. This evidence shows whether separate observations support the same chain.
Override authorityAI suggestions can create alert fatigue when recurring false positives appear credible. The analyst retains authority to override the suggestion and record why.
HorizonPay’s cases show the evidence required before an AI-suggested disposition can be accepted.