If you're not paranoid about AI yet

I want you to take a minute of your time and watch this YouTube clip:

If it weren’t for that obvious little detail called “the title”, I’m certain almost none of you would realize everything in this clip is fake. 

Let me say that again:

These people don’t exist. The venue doesn’t exist. The journalists don’t exist. Nothing in this clip is real. It’s all AI-generated, a demonstration of Google’s latest AI model, Veo 3. 

Why am I telling you this?

Because phishing has just gotten infinitely more dangerous. Imagine what cybercriminals will be able to do with this kind of technology.

From the top of my head, I can tell you a couple of ways they’re going to abuse this. 

Turbo crypto scams

A few years ago, scammers were running fake crypto exchanges, tokens, and giveaways, and were using Elon Musk deepfakes to promote the gig. This is what it used to look like:

Compared to the clip above, this one looks super lame. The funny thing is - the scam was super successful, hundreds of people fell for it and lost their money. With Veo 3, we won’t be able to distinguish the authentic from the fake, these scams are going to become super convincing.

Fake relatives stuck in foreign countries

One of the things criminals do all the time is profile their targets:

• An online service holds plenty of data on you (name, address, gender, email address, phone number)

• A criminal gets this data and uses it to check your social media profiles

• They find your relatives, ex partners, colleagues

• They create short deepfake clips: Your ex got robbed in a foreign country, their internet is poor so they can only send a short clip, they need you to wire some cash so they can buy a ticket home

Fake employees

Nowadays, during the hiring process, many companies will ask candidates to create a short clip explaining why they’re the perfect candidate for the role. With Veo 3, criminals will be able to fake entire identities even better. When they get hired, they’ll use the access to steal data, mount ransomware attacks, and God knows what else.

Paranoid Android

If AI hasn’t made you paranoid just yet - now’s a good time to start. The way things are progressing, it won’t be long before most of the content on the internet is AI-generated. In my opinion, if that happens, it’s going to defeat the whole purpose of the internet. 

I’m pretty sure the cybersecurity community will step up and find ways to identify AI-generated videos to mitigate the risk of high-quality phishing. Until that happens, I’d be careful with any and all incoming unvetted media. 

Stay safe out there,

• Sead from SmallBizCyberWiz