How to Protect Your Business From Deepfake Attacks

YouTube and other social media sites, such as TikTok, host a lot of deepfake videos. People frequently develop them to parody popular incidents involving politicians and celebrities. But what was formerly considered harmless is now viewed as quite hazardous since it can tarnish someone's reputation. It's also turning into a major security problem for companies.

Impact of Deepfake on Businesses

Research from cloud services provider VMware claims that deepfake attacks on companies are on the rise. Cybercriminals are now using deepfakes in their attack techniques, according to Rick McElroy, the cybersecurity strategist at VMware, in order to get around security measures. Malicious deepfakes were utilized in an attack, according to two out of every three survey participants from VMware. Email is the most used distribution mode, representing an increase of 13% from 2021. McElroy stated that using deepfake technology to breach businesses and access their environments is the new objective of criminals and hackers. Employees can be tricked into believing they are speaking with genuine individuals in order to do this. [caption id="attachment_68541" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Image credit: hitachi-systems-security[/caption] The Guardian reports that there have been multiple instances where deepfake has been used to deceive staff into sending money to con artists. According to The Wall Street Journal, a UK-based energy company employee sent $250,000 to criminals in 2019 after being duped into believing the addressee was the CEO of the company. The FBI is now alerting businesses that scammers are employing deepfake to establish online employees for remote-work roles in order to access corporate information. This is because of the disturbing examples of theft that are being reported. [caption id="attachment_68542" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Image credit: kaspersky[/caption] Many businesses are faced with a new security challenge thanks to Deepfake. Since there are numerous videos and audio recordings of thousands of individuals available online, owing to social media, it is simple for con artists to produce deepfakes.

How can you currently safeguard your company against this escalating risk?

• Defend Your Company Against Deep Fakes
• Human error is the most frequent cause of security breaches. It's critical to spot deepfake fraud.
• Explain the risks posed by deepfakes and how to spot them to employees, especially those working in positions involving the payment of money.

The authorization of payments should likewise be subject to stricter compliance processes.  You can do this by mandating that all requests for payments be made in writing using company email addresses rather than over the phone, setting up multiparty authorisation for bigger payments, and cultivating a strong "no-exceptions in any scenario" mentality. Investing in training tools like Phishingbox or KnowBe4 to assess your staff's understanding of potential risks is also crucial. [caption id="attachment_68545" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Image credit: kaspersky[/caption] Business Going Digital advises investing in IT specialists to provide personnel with regular training sessions. Training is the strongest line of defense against deepfakes and other dangers. Additionally, be sure that deepfake-based fraud and other schemes are covered by business insurance.