When we first started hearing about deepfakes, it was easy to dismiss the notion that they could be dangerous. To be fair, in those days the deepfakes that did see the light of day were so glitch and so obviously fake that it wasn't hard to be dismissive of their potential. After all, at the time the concept sounded more like something out of the old Nicholas Cage and John Travolta movie "Face-Off", just an interesting bit of science fiction. 

The narrative has changed since then. These days it is quite possible to make anyone do or say virtually anything. Do you want to star in a scene with your favourite celebrity, have a politician say something absolutely absurd, or even get anyone to sing your praises while dancing a jig? You can do all that and more if you can make a deepfake.

Deepfakes are basically synthetic media where people in a video can be replaced with a likeness of someone else. Even though deepfakes sound like a figment of science fiction, but the threat posed by them most certainly is not fiction. Not only can deepfakes threaten the stability of political positions, they are evolving to become increasingly more threatening to the financial stability of businesses. Deepfakes are doctored video, picture, and audio files that have been altered so well that it is almost impossible to tell whether they are fake or real. This is a serious threat as these files can potentially ruin you and your business overnight. 

This is a potent threat and unfortunately it is a tough threat to counter because most businesses don't have the vaguest idea how they can fight against deepfakes. Here is a quick overview on how businesses can retain their power by learning about how to thwart the threat posed by deepfakes.

The upsurge of deepfake scams

Even though deepfakes have been around for a while, it is only recently that they have been considered as a serious threat by the business industry. Within the 9 month duration between December 2018 and October 2019, the number of deepfake videos online rose by 84%, a statistic that would be much higher if the study included the dark web. While a vast majority of these videos are primarily pornographic or other adult content (not surprising considering what the internet is most used for), but there is still room for potentially disaster inducing fake videos that could wreak havoc on your business because of the compromising situations they could potentially create.

Owing to the rapid advancements in the technology responsible for making deepfakes, like advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence, it has become increasingly easier for cyber scammers, creators and criminals to create highly accurate and convincing deepfake audio and videos. Think about it, while you obviously would not share your bank details with any random hacker or con artist who calls or messages you, but what if you received a video call from someone who looks and talks exactly like your wife (or parent, or significant other) and they asked you for financial account information. What if your "wife" turned out to be an elaborate deepfake scan by a hacker using deepfake technology on a computer to scam you?

Emergence of deepfake cons

There have been many reporting of deepfake scam already where targeted threats have been made and have been proved to pay off. Unfortunately, the "success" of these scams has encouraged many cyber criminals to try the same. It is a well-known fact that once hackers figure out that a certain scamming strategy works, they will fine-tune it and make it even better so they can profit off of it 

In one scenario, the chief executive of a UK based energy company transferred $220,000 on the verbal instructions of somebody he was convinced was his boss. The money was transferred to a supposed Hungarian supplier and never seen again. Later the chief executive reported that not only was the voice quality and timbre exactly like his boss, the scammers even enunciated and pronounced the words exactly like the boss. 

In a study carried out by Symantec, it was discovered that several large companies have already fallen victim to successful deepfake audio scams. The modus operandi was the same, deepfake audio messages tricked the CFOs of these companies to transfer substantial amounts of money to these scammers. It has also been predicted by the proponents of said study, that deepfake scams could cost businesses around $300 million in 2021.

Deepfake threats and scams to watch out for

While many individuals and businesses are still been targeted using intricate email phishing cons and scams, the threats posed by deepfakes are rapidly becoming a much larger fish to fry. (Did you catch the pun there? I hope you did.) Deepfake scams may not be a prevalent problem right now, but you just watch and see it become they scamming tool of choice for hackers who have the right equipment, patience, and deep faking talent to turn this scam into a sugar daddy for them. Out of the many financial threats to your business posed by potential deepfakes, here are a few that you should watch out for:

• Scammers posing as clients or suppliers requesting a payment

• Scammers posing as supervisors or bosses requesting sensitive information

• Scammers posing as supervisors or bosses instructing the initiation of fund transfers

• Scammers posing as IT administrators to get access to the business's bank accounts

• Someone using fake audio and video for blackmail and extortion

• Someone using deepfake pictures, audios and video for launching smear campaigns on social media

How to protect yourself and your business

While the security team in your organization may understand the threat, actually protecting your business from deepfake scams is not that easy. While deepfake detection software are available, like Deeptrace and Cogito, they can be quite expensive and thus beyond the financial reach of smaller business concerns. However, there are a few precautions you can take to protect your company from the deepfake threat:

• Increase employee awareness about deepfakes

• Ask employees to report anything that seems unusual or peculiar

• Establish a cloaked or tiered communication policy, where phone calls are verified by email before action is taken. 

• Ensure that internal communication is done via email addresses or phone numbers that are not made public.

• Bulk up cyber security measures overall so the cybercriminals cannot gain access to company data. 

• Create strong policies regarding fund transfers, like having a two employee verification process policy. 

In conclusion

Deepfakes are no longer just an emerging threat, they are now evolved into a force that must be reckoned with. Don't ignore the threat, take measures today to ensure the stability of your business tomorrow.