Over 75% of cybersecurity officers in the financial sector fear deepfakes

Over three quarters (77%) of chief security officers (CS0s) in the financial sector are worried about the use of deepfake video, audio and images.

According to a new study from iProov, the main areas cybersecurity experts believed were at risk are personal banking and payment transfers. Following these it was social media, online dating and online shopping.

Only 28% of the 105 respondents stated they already have plans to protect against deepfakes. Of this, 41% said they planned to do so within the next two years.

According to the survey, 29% of respondents said deepfakes were a significant threat to their organization.

The study revealed 64% of cybersecurity experts believed the deepfake threat was just going to get worse.

A deepfake are images, videos or audio recordings which have been distorted to present an individual saying or do something they did not.

Onboarding processes in banks could be impacted by making fraudulent accounts to facilitate money-laundering. Payments or transfers could be authorized fraudulently, and synthetic identities could be created by a criminal taking elements of a real or fake identity and attaching them to a non-existent individual.

iProov founder and CEO Andrew Bud said: “It’s likely that so few organisations have taken action because they’re unaware of how quickly this technology is evolving. The latest deepfakes are so good they will convince most people and systems, and they’re only going to become more realistic.

“The era in which we can believe the evidence of our own eyes is ending. Without technology to help us identify fakery, every video and image will in future become suspect. That’s hard for all of us as consumers to learn, so we’re going to have to rely on really good technology to protect us.”

Copyright © 2020 FinTech Global

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