Deep Fakes: How to battle deep fakes and AI-powered scammers
On 18 July 2024, ING’s Security & Fraud Chapter Leads Aurel-George Proroocu and Mihai Roman will be speaking at the WeAreDevelopers World Congress in Berlin. It’s the world’s leading event for developers and tech decision-makers. They will share their insights on the rising threat of deep fakes in today’s life. Both personal and professional.
Why are deep fakes important?
Aurel-George: “Deep fakes use AI technology to generate content that shows people saying or doing things they never did in real life. Cybercriminals use it to impersonate people we know and trust. A tactic called social engineering. It allows scammers to be more efficient and target more people. They appeal to your emotions, creating a sense of panic. That’s when people are most off-guard.”
Mihai: “There is no magic solution for it. But with deep fake and AI technology advancing, so will the detection tools. In the meantime, our colleagues are creating a lot of content on social media channels, and working with other banks and authorities on how to fight and address these challenges. It’s the responsibility of the entire society to deal with it.”
How does deep fake work?
Aurel-George: “Scamming is not something new. Many years ago there was the accident scam. They would call the parents of a person, John let’s say, telling them that he was in an accident and asking them to quickly send money to save his life. Really appealing to the emotions of people. They even sent someone over to physically collect the money.”
Mihai: “Today, the US is undergoing the accident scam 2.0. Now they use the voice of John to call his parents, making it much more real. Asking them to quickly send money via a payment link. The emotional pressure is much bigger this way. And that is just one example of how deep fake is used by the bad guys.”
Do we see deep fake cyber scams in banking or Belgium?
Mihai: “We don’t see it happening a lot outside of the US or other English-speaking countries. Not yet anyway. However, there have been incidents in Belgium and the Netherlands already. And it’s only a matter of time until it will reach us as well. AI technology is evolving and improving fast in languages other than English.”
Every year, Aurel-George and Mihai speak on a handful of occasions, from internal talks to global tech conferences. Aurel-George: “We always have a clear goal on what the audience should take home. The goal for deep fakes is to raise awareness and how people can protect themselves in both personal and professional life.”
Mihai: “We share real-life examples but also show a video we made ourselves. You see Aurel-George but you hear me talking. It was quite easy to make, using open source technology and limited hardware power. Just t say, this could all happen to you too.”
What can we do to protect ourselves?
Aurel-George: “Scammers use every bit of data they can find. So be careful with what you share on Meta. And ask detailed questions that only the real person could answer. They will try to work around those, because they focus on the state of panic you’re in. But it still can help.”
Mihai: “Watch and listen closely. Look for signs that seem off. If you don’t trust it, don’t click or don’t do what they ask you. But it can also happen with a simple text message where they ask you to call a number. When that happens, check the number, see if it’s in your bank app as well. The simple rule is, don’t trust anyone, including yourself.”
Do you only talk about deep fakes?
Aurel-George: “Deep fakes are sexy today, but we also talk about other topics. I love to give the audience something valuable that they can take home. I also find it important to share our ING culture and our achievements. We always underline our engineering culture, because we are truly a tech company.”
Mihai: “I’ve been talking about engineering as well. But like every engineer, we are curious about everything that is going on in the world. And today, AI and deep fakes are the talk of the town. We do these talks to create awareness. To protect the bank, the customers, and anyone in the world.”
How did you end up in cybersecurity?
Aurel-George: “I started my career as a young entrepreneur at the age of 16, when I co-founded an Internet Service Provider back in my hometown, Bucharest. Since then, I have worked in various positions within IT, from engineer to manager. Five years ago, I joined ING, in fraud and cybersecurity. I love working here since we follow up on what’s really going on in the world, and explore solutions.”
Mihai: “I’ve been an engineer for as long as I can remember, at least 10 to 15 years. I started out in my home country Romania, as part of a team working for ING. After six years I bought a one-way ticket to Belgium and started working in security. To protect the bank and its customers from people with bad intentions. Then AI and deep fake came and here we are…”
The WeAreDevelopers World Congress will be held from 17 to 19 July in Berlin. Hosting 8000 companies, 15000 attendees and more than 500 speakers, including Mihai and Aurel-George. Learn more here.
Aurel-George and Mihai already spoke about this topic at the NDC Security in Oslo in January this year. You can watch the recording here.