Cybersecurity Expert Highlights Deepfake Threats to Privacy and Financial Security

The deepfake technology, which enables the creation of realistic yet fake images and sounds, presents new challenges in terms of digital security and privacy protection. According to Wojciech Chojnacki, the Director of the IT Systems Security Office and the Protection of Resources at Poczta Bank, a cybersecurity expert, currently, deepfake not only threatens the reputations of private individuals and public figures, but could also be used for financial fraud and misinformation on an unprecedented scale. In the era of rapidly evolving technologies, awareness and appropriate protections become an indispensable element of our daily lives. The development of tools for detecting deepfake manipulation and educating society about potential threats is crucial.

One of the tools that cybercriminals can utilize is deepfake voice. Artificial intelligence, through scripts, is capable of creating entire speeches which it transforms into any voice. Very small samples of the original voice are enough to create such a simulation. The resulting simulation is virtually indistinguishable from the original speech. This method is very often used in various types of frauds.

Deepfake voice is also frequently used during fake phone calls, such as when the boss asks us to send confidential documents to a private email address. Such conversations aim to trick us into sharing data or sending our logins and passwords to a specific number. It is important to remember that criminals also often use psychological effects, such as informing the victim about an accident or troubles experienced by someone close. Paired with a familiar-sounding voice on the phone, this can easily trick us and lead to financial losses.

Deepfake image, a new dimension of image manipulation

Not so long ago, modifying photos using programs like Photoshop required significant skills and time to achieve realistic results. Deepfake image technology, however, has taken it a step further, enabling quick and easy creation of completely imaginative images and movies, which are almost impossible to differentiate from reality. Thanks to advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, deepfake allows for manipulating faces, expressions, and voices in a way that seemed unrealistic a few years ago. A speech by a politician who never appeared in a certain place and never uttered those words, or a famous athlete promoting quick profits on a brand-new cryptocurrency exchange, can be generated in a matter of minutes. Someone’s image can also be used (publicly available on social media) for financial gain.

How to defend against deepfake voice and deepfake image?

Despite the fact that artificial intelligence tools are becoming more and more advanced, our best weapon against them is our mind. If something seems strange in an advertisement we watch, it likely is. For instance, if we receive a phone call and somebody speaks with a familiar voice asking for help – let’s verify that by asking about a shared memory, writing to that person, or calling their number. Reasonable and, above all, calm approaches to the content we see and hear on the internet allows us to recognize the ones that were faked. It is worth sticking to these simple rules, even when what we see or hear seems quite realistic.

The simplest verification method is also to look for additional information on the internet using, for example, a search engine. Slightly adapt our search by adding “fake news”. If somebody has already encountered something similar, the search results will help us decode the fraud. In the era of ubiquitous manipulation, we must all become adepts of the art of “white intelligence” in order to have tools to verify the content we find.