As a result, a serious crisis of security and privacy is on hand that will have serious political, social and ethical implications for every individual. Without efficient safety measures and best cybersecurity practices, no one can remain intact in terms of security, privacy, and fraud in this new age of artificial intelligence and Machine learning. This write-up will take this topic to a deeper level to inform you and suggest the best practices that will help you navigate these issues smartly.
What is Deepfake?
Deepfakes are fake media files such as fake photos, videos, speech, sounds, or gestures of a person that are created using artificial intelligence generative software. In this process, huge amounts of data are fed to the machine learning software to read and collect data about an individual whose deepfake is to be built. Based on these data and general patterns, AI tools generate similar models of the individuals that look original. It creates a hyperreality for the viewers, making it difficult for them to distinguish between reality and emulation. Due to this confusion, it is hard to recognize who the real entity behind these displays is.
Cybercriminals can exploit these elements to spread propaganda and fake news to mislead people into taking the wrong steps. In addition to this, they can malign an individual by synthesizing his image and video into illegal and malicious acts that are not acceptable to the public. They can use this technology to create a crisis among the general public to launch cyberattacks on businesses and government organizations. In such attacks, black hats create fake emergency situations in which they pressurize the target to take immediate action to sort out the issues. But all of it is fabricated and fake that is used to manipulate victims to take certain actions. These actions help black hats to carry out their malicious acts successfully.
Thus, recognizing these attack patterns is essential to protect oneself from impending damage. To prevent these cyber attacks, it is important to learn about the technicalities that run these malicious operations. So, let’s take each topic one by one.
How Does Deepfake Work?
Machine Learning programs play a crucial role in creating deepfake media forms. ML has a built-in neural network convolutional component that works like a human brain. This neural network observes and analyzes data patterns to generate an understanding of the general behavior of the target subject. This is where deepfake creation takes place. But before this, developers feed authentic data and information to the machine learning neural network system. This data includes videos, audio, images, voice recordings, and scripts that outline the general personality traits and physical appearance of the targeted subject. ML neural systems train themselves on this data and build algorithms to display detailed pictures, expressions, traits, and accurate virtual physical emulations of the subject.
Once the emulations and copies of the subject are ready with all the traits, expressions, and body movements, the next process in the line is to synchronize and synthesize these models with the videos and scripts. In this process, computer graphic technologies overlay the video with the facial and vocal patterns that are built into the neural network input. The end result comes into being as deepfake media forms such as videos, audio, and photos that appear to be real and seamless. This is how Deepfake works to create a hyperreal representation of a person.
How Many Types Of Deepfake Are There?
There are different types of deepfakes based on diverse capabilities and the work they carry out. They are as follows:
Video Deepfakes
A deepfake video displays a real person doing things that they never did in their real life. These videos are created by overlaying and synthesizing faces and voices of people with the deepfakes generated with the help of artificial intelligence. AI algorithms superimpose or replace faces, voices, and expressions of people in place of other individuals. As a result of this, the view you see on the screen looks completely real. It becomes highly difficult for the viewer to differentiate between what is real and what is fake. It may create confusion for the viewer when they see this type of content. Cybercriminals can misuse this tool to spread disinformation and misinformation and launch cyber attacks.
Audio Deepfakes
This is another synthetic media form that uses artificial intelligence to create deepfakes. In this type of media, neural networks of AI clone human voices to narrate scripts in a hyperreal way to rig phone calls and voice recorders. For doing this work, software like Lyrebird and deep voice are used to clone the voices of humans to create replicas of the sound and speech of a particular person. These software are fed with the repositories of data to train them to generate a replica of the model. Once the replica is ready, it is given scripts to narrate. Using these scripts creates similar voices that make it possible to create audio deep fakes.
Live Deepfakes
This type of deepfake is created in real time to deliver live streams and video conferences. It uses immediate visual and audio generation to deliver an animated media form to the client. All the elements are edited on an instant basis to generate a live broadcast. In this process, AI algorithms alter the facial, auditory, and visual features to create a real effect. After this, the superimposition of content with the emulation models happens at the same time. As a result of this, viewers get a streaming video that seems real and happens in real-time. This technology is used mostly in live performances, gaming, streaming, etc. Due to its live streaming, it raises concerns about the potential for the spread of misinformation, privacy violations, and identity theft.
Social Media Deepfakes
This type is used to make fake social media profiles for various purposes. It will use deepfake photos, videos, and voice notes to create a seemingly new profile as a commoner, celebrity, or government official. These profiles look almost real because differentiating them from the new accounts is a challenging task for the one who is not so pro about deepfakes. These are some of the most harmful and misleading tactics that online criminals can use to malign an individual or commit fraud in their name.
Textual Deepfakes
Last but not least, this type of deepfakes is also present in the world of the internet and can prove potentially dangerous for the general public. These artificially generated texts copy human writing styles so accurately that they can be ascribed to a particular person. Detecting them to be real or fake and identifying the real creator in this field is not possible for the ordinary human eye. AI uses advanced natural language processing processes and deep learning algorithms to compose these writings. These artificially created texts are used as fake news articles, content for websites, and automated online reviews. These are highly dangerous tools to spread disinformation, misinformation, and illegal marketing promotions.
What are Some Deepfake Attack Examples?
With the advancement of technology and super-accurate machine learning programs, the hyperreal emulation of an individual is not hypothetical these days. As a result of this, deepfakes have become a common reality with the commoners these days. Due to social media platforms and media outlets, black hats can easily get vast amounts of video, audio and speech data about a person. They feed this information to the ML Neural System to build convincing deepfakes. With these synthesized models of an individual, they launch various types of cyberattacks on people to blackmail and extort them for money and other illicit gains. Here are some examples of deep fake attacks and how they work:
Fake Political Agenda
Deepfake can be used to spread and promote fake political agendas to convince the masses about a particular issue and ideology in society. It will use artificially generated political figures to deliver speeches, addresses, and other types of broadcasting to promote a special type of agenda that is beneficial for their personal gains. These videos and speeches then spread to social media platforms and news channels for the general public. The fiery statements and provoking speeches synced in the content affect people emotionally. These emotions lead people to mobilize and move in a single direction to fulfill the stated goals dictated in the video. This way, virtual reality gives birth to physical reality and promotes a fake political agenda. It can be harmful and beneficial for people worldwide, depending on the work and purpose of the goals stated in the videos.
Reputation Damage
Black hats can use deepfake of a person to damage his reputation. In this process, they will use fake videos, audio, and recordings of the target person. Using these media forms, they will create fake videos about the person showing him doing, saying, and promoting things that are illegal, obscene, or misleading. When this content is posted on social media platforms, and people see it, they immediately start to blame the person for his malicious acts. All of this damages the reputation of a person beyond measure. In extreme cases, the target person in the media files becomes so depressed that he commits suicide or takes serious steps that further damage him emotionally and physically. So, deepfakes are highly damaging when it comes to a person’s reputation.
Identity theft
Cybercriminals can use deepfake technology to impersonate an individual on social media, important accounts, and voice calls. With this, they can access the more important accounts and business elements. Once they are successful in doing so, they create a separate identity regarding the person and commit all the crimes in their name. Black hats can empty their bank accounts, sign illegal deals, steal business information, and disturb the whole working process. In this type of attack, black hats target the most important persons in a firm. These individuals may include the company CEO, managers, directors, and finance managers.
Social Engineering
Black hats use deepfake technology in social engineering scams to trick people and groups. In this process, they accurately copy the tone, expressions, and appearances of the leading professionals in an organization. After this, they talk to important company officials to get them to do the work that will reveal confidential information to the cybercriminals. Officials take the calls for real and end up revealing all the information to their enemy. Using this information, cybercriminals commit financial and business frauds and damage the reputation of their targets.
How to Prevent Deep Fake Cyber Attacks?
As you can see, there are various types of attacks that black hats carry out on individuals using deep fake technology. It is highly important to protect yourself from these attacks. It is a significant challenge that everyone has to deal with if they want to protect their identity, privacy, online security, and social reputation. The initial step to complete this process is to identify these attacks and prevent them from taking place at the very outset. If you are not aware of the facts and process of how to deal with these attacks due to a lack of proper know-how in this field, then don’t worry. Follow these simple steps and prevent deep fake cyber attacks:
Use Anti-Fake Tools
The first step to prevent deepfake attacks is to use anti-fake technology. These tools will offer automated solutions to detect and differentiate between real and fake media files and content. Such tools are backed by AI-based detection programs. Such software uses deep learning tools and algorithms to find anomalies and artificially generated information. One of the ways to detect the content is to watermark the information in the media files. It finds the manipulation codes in the content to verify the scripts, tones, and emulation in videos, audacious, and live broadcasting. Each deepfake content has a cryptographic signature that is embedded in the media file.
Anti-deep fake technology will recognize this code and let the user know whether the content they are seeing is real or fake. It will let you know where the deviation took place and what sources have been used to generate the particular video. So, using an anti-fake tool would be the best way to find out the authenticity of the content.
Proper Training and Know-how
This is another step to prevent deep fake online attacks. In this method, individuals can enroll in proper training and know-how programs that will help them build skills to deal with such types of attacks. Such programs will equip individuals to recognize the attack patterns black hats can use to target a person. It will help them mend the vulnerabilities that cyberpunks can exploit as a weapon to steal identity and information to impersonate you. With the proper training and awareness programs, anyone will be able to prevent malicious attacks from online criminals.
Prepare an Attack Response Strategy
Preparing a response strategy to deal with such attacks is one of the best ways to minimize the effects of damaging effects. This strategy is specifically important for business professionals and important organizations. Utilizing these tactics will serve as an ambulance for the entities who went through server attacks. It will give them first aid and pave the way for the upcoming recovery plans.
Secure Your Social Media Information
Posting everything about your personal life on social media accounts is not a good idea. Remember, someone is always looking at your online activities. They track you all the time to learn about the links and sites you often visit, the type of food you eat, the type of people you like to meet, etc. They will use your photos, reels, and videos as fuel to feed the AI and ML programs to create replicas about you. But if you restrict this information, you can avoid the potential danger. All the more it is highly essential to keep your profile hidden and closed for the public. Allow only your friends to access the photos and see what you post on your social media platforms. Most importantly, do not connect or accept friend requests from strangers. Only allow those whom you know in real life or you have met them in person.
Use Effective Security Rules
Using security protocols is essential to deal with the dangerous effects down the line. You should always have a mechanism to deliver the news about the reality of the posts and content that are related to you. Suppose someone uses deepfake to deliver something you never did. In that case, it is highly essential that you immediately give a response to tell whether it is you who delivered this content or someone else did this without your information. It will help you keep people informed about the reality of the subject. Hence, make sure to implement robust security protocols to protect your image and privacy.
Utilize Block Chain
Blockchain technology can be a reliable way to deal with security and authenticity concerns in the age of artificial intelligence and machine learning. It provides decentralized data storing and management capabilities to the users. People can store the data on their preferred servers without relying on the centralized servers. It will reduce the risks associated with the single points of failure and potential security breaches. Also, it can do away with the wide range of security vulnerabilities that centralized data storage systems can suffer.
Blockchain ensures data is distributed across multiple nodes, making it more resilient to unauthorized access. This type of network is well-suited for storing cryptographic hashes and e-signatures that are connected to digital content. These hashes and e-signatures work as unique identifiers that work to authenticate and verify the integrity of digital assets. These unique identifiers can play a central role in differentiating between deepfakes and real media content such as video, photos, voice recorders, and scripts.
Use Zero-Trust Policy to Online Content
Zero trust policy is one of the best ways to deal with the deepfake situation in this latest digital age. It is a policy in which you only trust online content, news, or media files once you have verified them yourself. In a zero-trust approach, you must verify and authenticate the elements before you provide any access to them. You should implement security software in this scenario to continuously monitor and analyze the signs of suspicious activities or deviations from normal behavior. It will encrypt your data in the transit and static mode stored in your devices to protect it from malware attacks. These tactics will enable the users to prevent deep fake cyber attacks. When your data and accounts are protected with robust security perimeters, it will become next to impossible for the black hats to access your data and use it to create fake emulations to use them against you.
How to Spot Deepfakes?
Different institutions and big IT organizations are investing a lot in the technology of detecting deep fakes and AI-generated content. Social media platforms are blocking content that is artificially generated and has malicious consequences for the general public. But still, cyberpunks find the vents and holes in which they can sneakily infiltrate the fake digital content to mislead the masses. So, how can you spot the deepfakes to prevent their harmful effects on the general public? For that, you have to observe things and apply some rules to find the gaps. If you pay attention to the video content, then you can easily detect whether the person in the video is real or fake. Here are some tips that you can use to detect the AI created digital media files:
Unnatural Eye Movements
Deepfake characters display abnormal eye movements. The way they blink and move their eyes looks completely abnormal. This abnormal movement is a sign these videos are created with the help of AI and machine learning programs. It is still difficult to copy complex human expressions in the videos exactly the same way as they do in real life. So, pay attention to eye movements when you see any online video. If it looks unnatural, then it is a confirmation that the model in the video is not a real person.
Look For The Lip Movement
The same is the case with the lip movements. In an artificially generated video, the character shows distorted lip movements. Also, the audio and video seem mismatched when the sounds come before or after the movement of the lips. In our real life, we can understand lip movements as a person articulates sounds and speech. They look familiar and work in a way that matches the sounds and speech patterns. But in a deepfake, you will see that this lip movement is missing as it is completely inconsistent and matchless with the articulation movements of lips and the sounds you hear coming from the video. Hence, this is one of the most effective and easy-to-notice features that you can see to detect and identify the video content and the characters doing actions in it.
Inconsistencies in Colors and Shadows
You will see inconsistencies in the shadows and colors of the deepfake video, its background, and changes that occur from one frame to another. The shadows will be falling in the wrong directions and will create wrong angles. The skin color of the character will look deformed and unnatural. In addition to this, you will see that the hair of the person looks hard, and strands are visible on the edges. If the character is wearing any jewelry in the video, it will look unnatural. The teeth and eye iris will also give an effect of inconsistency and unnatural lightning. So, these are inaccuracies, which are strong signs of fake media content. If you want to find out the reality of the video content, then you should look for these signs. These are simple but effective tips anyone can implement in their life to find the truth about the video content.
Takeaways
Deepfake is a phenomenally lethal tool that cybercriminals can use to fraud anyone. Everyone lives in a constant fear of getting robbed and maligned due to this. Preventing and protecting oneself from these new types of attacks is highly essential. If taken lightly, it can generate a wave of damage and disinformation that will have serious consequences on every individual’s life. But if you follow the tips and tactics discussed in this write-up, you will be able to minimize its damaging effects effectively. It would help if you implemented these defense techniques to keep your image and privacy protected. Most importantly, it will provide you with leverage to address the critical situation created by the deepfake manipulations. So, stop all your worries and follow the tips and safety practices to protect yourself from deepfake scams.
