How deepfakes ‘hack the humans’ (and corporate networks)

Once crude and expensive, deepfakes are now a rapidly rising cybersecurity threat.

A UK-based firm lost $243,000 thanks to a deepfake that replicated a CEO’s voice so accurately that the person on the other end authorized a fraudulent wire transfer. A similar “deep voice” attack that precisely mimicked a company director’s distinct accent cost another company $35 million.

Maybe even more frightening, the CCO of crypto company Binance reported that a “sophisticated hacking team” used video from his past TV appearances to create a believable AI hologram that tricked people into joining meetings. “Other than the 15 pounds that I gained during COVID being noticeably absent, this deepfake was refined enough to fool several highly intelligent crypto community members,” he wrote.

Cheaper, sneakier and more dangerous

Don’t be fooled into taking deepfakes lightly. Accenture’s Cyber Threat Intelligence (ACTI) team notes that while recent deepfakes can be laughably crude, the trend in the technology is toward more sophistication with less cost.

In fact, the ACTI team believes that high-quality deepfakes seeking to mimic specific individuals in organizations are already more common than reported. In one recent example, the use of deepfake technologies from a legitimate company was used to create fraudulent news anchors to spread Chinese disinformation showcasing that the malicious use is here, impacting entities already. 

A natural evolution

The ACTI team believes that deepfake attacks are the logical continuation of social engineering. In fact, they should be considered together, of a piece, because the primary malicious potential of…