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Deepfake technology is becoming a tool for fraudsters, and even big companies are being targeted. In recent news, LastPass shared an incident where an employee received calls and messages via WhatsApp from someone impersonating the CEO using deepfake audio. Fortunately, the employee was cautious and reported the incident. The deepfake audio used in this attack was likely generated using deepfake audio models trained on publicly available audio recordings of LastPass' CEO. 

According to a recent global study, 25% of people have been victims of AI voice impersonation scams, which are difficult to detect. These scams are commonly used in executive impersonation fraud. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently issued an alert about cybercriminals. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently targeted IT help desks through social engineering tactics and AI voice cloning tools to deceive their targets. In addition, the FBI issued a Private Industry Notification (PIN) in March 2021, warning that deepfakes (including AI-generated or manipulated audio, text, images, or video) are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are likely to be widely employed by hackers in cyber and foreign influence operations. Not to mention a recent incident in a Hong Kong branch of a multinational company where a finance worker was tricked into wiring $25 million to a fraudster who posed as Chief Financial Officer in a video conference call.

Takeaways:

• If you receive a business call through an unusual platform, confirm it through known, official channels. Be wary of urgent requests that seem out of the ordinary
• Consider in-person requests for sensitive matters
• Stick to well-known and secure methods of communication for business purposes
• If you suspect a deepfake scam, report it to your security team or IT or Managed Security partner immediately

Stay vigilant, and don't let deepfakes deceive you.

#ALTACyber

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Genady Vishnevetsky
Chief Info Security Officer
Stewart Title Guaranty Company
Houston TX
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It is so scary, we were in a conference where we were played a recording of the scammers impersonating one of the parties in a real estate transaction and another recording with the real person, you could not tell the difference.

Thank you Genady, your information is always outstanding and very informative

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Mary Enzi CAA
Tax Solutions – FIRPTA Consulting
mary.santiago@taxss.com
+1 (281) 578-1040
Barker TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-19-2024 08:19
From: Genady Vishnevetsky
Subject: Security BUZZ - Beware of Deepfake Scams!

Deepfake technology is becoming a tool for fraudsters, and even big companies are being targeted. In recent news, LastPass shared an incident where an employee received calls and messages via WhatsApp from someone impersonating the CEO using deepfake audio. Fortunately, the employee was cautious and reported the incident. The deepfake audio used in this attack was likely generated using deepfake audio models trained on publicly available audio recordings of LastPass' CEO. 

According to a recent global study, 25% of people have been victims of AI voice impersonation scams, which are difficult to detect. These scams are commonly used in executive impersonation fraud. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently issued an alert about cybercriminals. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently targeted IT help desks through social engineering tactics and AI voice cloning tools to deceive their targets. In addition, the FBI issued a Private Industry Notification (PIN) in March 2021, warning that deepfakes (including AI-generated or manipulated audio, text, images, or video) are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are likely to be widely employed by hackers in cyber and foreign influence operations. Not to mention a recent incident in a Hong Kong branch of a multinational company where a finance worker was tricked into wiring $25 million to a fraudster who posed as Chief Financial Officer in a video conference call.

Takeaways:

• If you receive a business call through an unusual platform, confirm it through known, official channels. Be wary of urgent requests that seem out of the ordinary
• Consider in-person requests for sensitive matters
• Stick to well-known and secure methods of communication for business purposes
• If you suspect a deepfake scam, report it to your security team or IT or Managed Security partner immediately

Stay vigilant, and don't let deepfakes deceive you.

#ALTACyber

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Genady Vishnevetsky
Chief Info Security Officer
Stewart Title Guaranty Company
Houston TX
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