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Deepfake technology has rapidly matured in the criminal ecosphere, driving a wave of extortion, identity theft, and fraud.
On 3 July, the US State Department circulated a cable warning of an unknown actor using AI to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
According to the cable, this individual sent messages via text and voice mail to several foreign ministers and US politicians.
“The State Department is aware of this incident and is currently monitoring and addressing the matter,” Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokesperson, told the media.
“The department takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard its information and continuously take steps to improve the department’s cyber security posture to prevent future incidents.”
Unfortunately, according to a new report from Trend Micro, those future incidents are only likely to increase, both in number and sophistication.
The report, Deepfake it ’til You Make It: A Comprehensive View of the New AI Criminal Toolset, paints a picture of a criminal ecosystem quickly adapting to generative AI and deepfake tools and technology. Rather than relying on “underground tools”, cyber criminals are now using off-the-shelf software designed for legitimate content creators to target both organisations and individuals.
“AI-generated media is not just a future risk, it’s a real business threat. We’re seeing executives impersonated, hiring processes compromised, and financial safeguards bypassed with alarming ease,” Andrew Philp, ANZ Field CISO at Trend Micro, said in a statement.
Criminals are creating deepfakes to impersonate senior executives, while fake candidates are flooding recruitment processes in order to gain access to sensitive information. Financial services, in particular, are seeing an increase in the use of deepfakes to bypass Know Your Customer processes; this lets fraudsters use fake credentials to launder money at will.
As scammers and other criminals learn these skills, they are also sharing them widely. Trend Micro’s report outlines a thriving market for tutorials and toolkits, dramatically lowering the barrier to entry.
“This research is a wake-up call – if businesses are not proactively preparing for the deepfake era, they’re already behind,” Philp said.
“In a world where seeing is no longer believing, digital trust must be rebuilt from the ground up.”
You can read the full report here.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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