The emergence of deepfake technology has become a significant concern for individuals and businesses. In recent years, it has become the favorite tool of fraudsters for obtaining personal information for identity-related frauds. This post will explain what deepfake is, how it is used, and what you can do to prevent it.
Fraudsters are becoming innovative with the techniques they use to commit crimes. Nowadays, they are using advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to obtain personal and financial information.
Deepfake is new technique cybercriminals are using to trick security systems. If we don’t take the necessary steps, deepfake technology may pose a significant threat to the future of identity verification.
In this post, you will learn what deepfake is, how fraudsters are using it, why it is a big concern for identity verification service, and what can be done to spot and prevent it. So, without further delay, let’s get started.
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What is Deepfake?
The term deepfake is used to refer to digital representations (video and images), which are produced by artificial intelligence to replace the person in the original video with someone else. The algorithms of deepfake are intelligent enough to make decisions on their own.
While deepfake technology has many positive uses, it has gained widespread attention for its applications in fake news, hoaxes, celebrity pornography, and identity theft.
As politicians, celebrities, and other high-profile personalities, have a lot of pictures, and videos over the internet for public viewing, they make the easy target for deepfake. Unfortunately, in recent times, fraudsters have started using this technique for identity-related frauds as well.
How Do Fraudsters Use Deepfake?
As mentioned above, deepfake technology has a lot of positive applications. For example, it can help filmmakers, and 3D artists alter video transcripts and create amazing pieces of art. Moreover, the technology can also be used for educational purposes. Sadly, we see its uses in creating fake content and for nefarious purposes more.
According to an article published in Tech Times, a large number of deepfake videos were found online between 2018 to 2019 (84% increase in less than a year).
In 2019, an unusual cybercrime made the headlines all across the globe. Fraudsters fooled a company into a massive wire transfer using AI-powered deepfake. Cybercriminals mimicked the CEO’s voice to fool his company into transmitting $243,000 to their bank account. It indicates that deepfake technology can be used for different types of fraud.
Don’t forget; we often share our videos and pictures on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Fraudsters can use them to deepfake and then access our personal information. Deepfake technology is improving with time, so crooks can easily use it to identity theft, opening fake accounts, and taking over accounts.
Let’s learn more about the use of deepfake technology for identity theft.
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Uses of Deepfake for Identity Theft
Deepfake-based frauds have become new challenges for cybersecurity authorities. They are advising businesses to upgrade outdated authentication methods such as knowledge-based authentication and SMS-based two-factor authentication, which are vulnerable to fraud.
As mentioned above, the deepfake technique is upgrading with time; businesses need to make changes to their identity verification service as well. They need to understand that techniques like deepfake can cause risk to their KYC processes. Fraudsters can create videos to falsify identities of customers onboarding processes. Moreover, they might fake a victim’s voice over call to bypass verification measures.
Nowadays, fraudsters can accumulate data for deepfake identity theft quickly through various methods. They can gain personal details from your social media accounts; they can hack your devices that use biometrics. They can even tap your phone for audio, videos, and photo samples. Fraudsters can then deepfake this data with the help of AI for identity fraud.
Some of the possible examples of deepfake identity theft include:
- Using the victim’s voice and face to change account numbers and passwords.
- Using the victim’s voice over a call to friends and family asking for money transfer.
- Making false identity documents to gain access to a bank account.
How to Detect Deepfakes?
Deepfake technology is advancing every day; therefore, detecting it is not that simple. However, here are some ways you can spot it:
- According to US researchers, deepfake faces don’t blink because when several pictures run through the AI, it shows people with their eyes open. After all, algorithms don’t learn about blinking.
- If you notice a weird mixture of two false faces, it can be deepfake.
- If you notice uneven skin tone or improper lip-synching, there is a good chance that it is deepfake.
- Since fine details such as teeth and hair are hard for deepfake to render well, they might look slightly different, so keep your eyes on them.
Many tech firms, universities, and governments worldwide are researching to detect deepfake. Even there is a deepfake detection challenge backed by Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft.
Well, detecting deepfake is one thing, but preventing is another. Let’s get to know what can be done to avoid it.
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How Can We Prevent Deepfakes?
Liveness detection is an excellent feature for biometric-based recognition solutions. It can detect any spoof attempt by identifying whether or not the source of a biometric sample is an actual human being or a false representation.
This technology combines identity verification, lip-sync authentication, and biometric facial recognition. Therefore, it minimizes the chance of a spoofing attempt to a great extent.
Liveness checks often ask users to look into different directions or change their facial expressions. For example, you might be asked for blinking, smiling, or frowning. In addition to this voice, authentication is an essential part of liveness detection. Therefore, deepfakes can’t penetrate liveness checks easily.
Liveness detection can be an excellent solution to protect your organization from the emerging deepfake threat. If you want to work with a reputable identity verification company, you can get in touch with iDenfy.
We have advanced liveness detection and spoofing technology, which can prevent your organization from possible deepfake threats. Besides liveness detection, we also offer ID verification, AML compliance, facial recognition, and various other identity verification services. To know about our services, you can book a meeting with us.
