Deepfakes are a form of media that have been digitally manipulated, often through artificial intelligence, to replace one person’s likeness with that of another. Cyber threat actors are using deepfake technology in new social engineering schemes. A finance worker in Hong Kong was recently convinced to send approximately $25 million to scammers after a conference call with deepfake media impersonating his company’s CFO and other coworkers. The scam was discovered a week later after the employee spoke with his head office.
Deepfakes also raise concerns about the creation and spread of misinformation. Convincing deepfakes of well-known public figures have been found on popular social media sites and have been used to spread disinformation, promote scam giveaways, and create fabricated explicit content. In other examples, deepfakes were used to create convincing images and spoofed audio recordings.

Recommendation

The NJCCIC recommends users and organizations educate themselves and others on these continuing threats and tactics to reduce victimization. If you are unsure of the legitimacy of a communication, message, image, or video, conduct additional research and only consume content from reputable sources. If you identify deepfake media, report the activity to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and the NJCCIC .

Reporting

The NJCCIC encourages recipients who discover signs of malicious cyber activity to contact the NJCCIC via the cyber incident report form at www.cyber.nj.gov/report.

Please do not hesitate to contact us here at Cyber Command with any questions.