We will see the rise in the use of artificial intelligence for malicious purposes before we fully benefit from its good. Earlier this year, a cybercriminal attempted to extort $1 million from an Arizona woman by claiming to have kidnapped her daughter. This incident is just one example of the growing danger of voice cloning, made possible by AI. Unfortunately, cybercriminals are increasingly using AI-enabled tools to scam people. Shockingly, all it takes is a small sample of biometric content, such as a few seconds of audio from a social media platform like Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram, for attackers to create convincing deep fake videos and audio. Many AI tools are available to make voice cloning relatively easy for them.
AI tools like ChatGPT can combine data from different sources, such as video, voice, and geolocation, which malicious actors can use to identify potential targets for voice cloning or other fraudulent activities. By using input scripts, these actors can create a deep fake voice of, for example, someone's child, causing them to appear distressed, crying, or screaming. Such deep fake voices can be used as evidence by the attackers, claiming they have the victim's child in their custody and demanding large amounts of ransom. Furthermore, these AI tools can fully automate the conversation that imposters would use in a voice cloning scam.
Security experts predict that SIM-jacking, the act of taking control of someone's phone, will be used by cybercriminals to carry out imposter scams like virtual kidnapping. This involves the kidnappers jamming the victim's phone number, making it impossible to reach them, thus increasing the likelihood of a ransom payment.
Just like ChatGPT opened Pandora's box for us and the financial industry by making phishing emails almost flawless and taking wire fraud to the next level, existing voice-cloning vendors are scrambling to find a solution. So, their tools are not used for evil.
#ALTACyber
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Genady Vishnevetsky
Chief Info Security Officer
Stewart Title Guaranty Company
Houston TX
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