Do you know technology has advanced to the extent that people with technical expertise can create a highly realistic and convincing digital persona of yours, blurring the thin line between real and fake? Undeniably, artificial intelligence has streamlined many life prospects but malicious actors are now exploiting it to mimic the identities of targeted individuals to conduct illegitimate activities. Deepfakes, synthetic media of genuine individuals which could be either images, videos, or voices, are evolving rapidly posing serious threats to the integrity of personally identifiable information (PII).
What are Deepfakes: A Rising Threat
The term ‘deepfake’ is a combination of two phrases ‘deep learning’ and ‘fake media’, representing these are synthetic content, highly resembling genuine individuals. Sophisticated deep learning networks particularly generative adversarial networks (GANs) are employed to generate AI deepfakes of the targeted individuals. GANs consist of two fractions including a generator and a discriminator, the function of the generator is to create synthetic media, and the discriminator attempts to discern between real and fake until the difference goes unnotified.
Malicious actors use deepfake technology to target influential people and generate highly convincing images or videos for nefarious purposes. These AI deepfakes are disseminated over the internet to spread false information, manipulate public perception, harm societal image, or claim money. The obvious objective behind deepfakes is to spread porn images or videos of influential individuals, particularly women to take revenge or damage their reputation.
Tracing the Evolution
Deepfake technology isn’t new in town, decades ago it was used in the entertainment or media industry to enhance visual content or show elderly actors as young. It presented potential applications to film studios, the media industry, and visual artists, offering remarkable effects. But with the advent of technology, malicious actors have become sophisticated and use the technology for self-centric interests. The first deepfake of an individual developed for malicious purposes was reported by a Reddit user in 2017, and since then the number of AI deepfakes has soared.
The motives behind deepfakes are devastating, profoundly impacting the victims and harming the integrity of the digital community. Even the advanced biometric authentication fails to detect the fabricated identities and the synthetic content roams freely over the internet, causing harm to victims and viewers as well.
Emerging as A Social Engineering Tool
Social engineering refers to psychological manipulation rather than technical hacking, taking advantage of human psychology and tricking unsuspecting people into revealing sensitive information or sending potential funds. Vulnerable unaware of the cyber threats easily fall victim to such scams and face severe consequences.
AI deepfakes not only present potential consequences to victims and viewers but are also being employed as a social engineering tool. Using sophisticated deepfakes, malicious actors reach out to vulnerable people and pretend to be genuine people asking for confidential information or money. Reports indicate that most people don’t confirm the credibility of the source and end up performing the required actions.
Potential Threats of AI Deepfakes
Deepfakes have emerged as a growing concern and impose serious threats to the integrity of the online world. Anyone can fall victim to this threat as cybercriminals leave no avenue unexplored to support their nefarious maneuvers. Cybercriminals collect a bulk of information often acquired through social media platforms, or digital trails and use this information to generate a highly convincing digital persona, posing serious challenges for the victims.
There could be plenty of motives behind the creation of highly sophisticated deep fakes. The consequences are more dreadful than you think. AI deepfakes are often generated to create fake scandals or fabricated stories to influence people’s opinions and damage the reputational image of the victims. More or less, these are created to take revenge, causing victims to face serious consequences.
How to Safeguard Yourself
It’s paramount to stay updated and protect your identity against rising cyber threats. Online deepfakes are continually evolving and posing serious consequences, stressing the need to develop robust AI deepfake detection measures and sophisticated tools to evade the risks. Individuals can prevent themselves from online deepfakes by reducing digital footprints, using watermarks on all photos uploaded online, and securing digital accounts with multi-factor authentication.
AI deepfakes are getting sophisticated with time, and so must the efforts to combat the evil. Biometric authentication systems must be advanced to the extent that deepfakes are promptly flagged and detected. Implementing liveness detection into a biometric authentication system could play a critical role. Liveness checks actively authenticate the identity of genuine individuals and flag fabricated identities in real time. Furthermore, deploying multi-modal biometrics significantly lowers the chances of fabricated identities entering into systems.