How to protect your business from deepfakes
One of the most effective tools of disinformation — false information spread with the intent to mislead — is called a deepfake.
Deepfakes are synthetically modified media used to impersonate real humans.
While there are audio, photo and text deepfakes,
The most popular format is video.
Deepfakes are dangerous because they’re convincing enough that people believe they’re real.
Cyber criminals are using deepfake videos and audio to impersonate executives…
and convince employees to release sensitive data or make unauthorized payments.
In one case, an employee received a phone call from a criminal who used sophisticated software to sound like the employee’s boss –
and requested a rush payment.
The employee was tricked and sent the money.
To protect against deepfakes, businesses should educate employees about their existence — and the many forms they can take — using realistic examples.
Also train employees how to spot a deepfake by looking for telltale flaws, such as blurred edges around the face,
mismatched skin tones…
or strange pauses between words.
Remind employees to treat all communication with skepticism
– even video conferencing and phone calls —
especially those that direct you to another site or application,
or ask for information or payments outside of usual billing processes, and do so with urgency
Senior leadership should empower employees to pause a payment process and require all payment requests be validated through a secondary channel — even ones that come from them.
Also, include deepfake scenarios in your incident response planning. It’s critical to be prepared so you can quickly counter a deepfake incident.
And continue to educate your employees and reinforce cyber security best practices, such as fraud prevention and identity verification protocols, because employees are the first line of defense.
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