Fake video and audio streams are ruining the reputations of executives and the companies. In some cases, these fake videos are published as a part of extortion campaigns; in other cases, they’re used to discredit government leaders. Nonetheless, such fakes are showing up in attempts to excerpt money from businesses as well.
A deep fake is a media stream that’s formed using artificial intelligence by altering prevailing information to build a new media stream that reasons to be someone doing something that they didn’t do in reality.
Technology to create fakes has been around for a while; however, it’s getting so good these days that it’s almost impossible to identify the discrepancy between something real and something that’s not.
Earlier, the voices were done by an individual impersonating the subject, but then it has changed now, and the AI is capable of creating a voice that’s much more realistic.
“Audio deep fakes are a big threat. They can be used for CEO fraud. If your company doesn’t have some confirmation of expenditures, you can fall victim,” said Adam Kujawa, director of Malwarebytes Labs.
Now, most of the executives are aware of the type of CEO fraud where a senior executive, frequently termed as the CEO, sends an email requesting the transfer of money.
In such cases, companies utilize a second means of authentication, where a phone call validates the reality of the situation. But unfortunately, voice fakes can tamper this too with AI technology.
Chris Kennedy, CISO and VP of customer success at AttackIQ, says, “Those kinds of things can put a company out of business through reputation damage. We’re hitting the tipping point in which technology is taking advantage of the biggest human weakness, we’re over-trusting.”
One can handle these fakes by learning exactly what type of activity they’re stumbling upon. For attempts at fraud, you can create a means of authentication that you control. You may have to teach your workforce that they can’t trust anyone without appropriate verification.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much one can do to prevent someone, perhaps a disgruntled former employee, from releasing a fake video on the internet.
The only way to a handle such scenario is to first be able to prove the authenticity of the video, and second to get your communications department to spread the word about it as early as possible.
