US court filing details how fraudsters used AI to clone a UAE company director's voice to steal $35M in early 2020
AI voice cloning is used in a huge heist in the U.A.E, according to Dubai investigators, amidst warnings about cybercriminal use of the new technology. Tweets: @iblametom , @lorenzofb , @racheltobac , @anthony , @iblametom , and @malwarejake Tweets: Thomas Brewster / @iblametom : SCOOP - And a wild one... Fraudsters used “deep voice” tech - as in deep fake for speech - to clone a company director's voice. They then convinced a bank manager to send $35 million to various accounts across the world. AI-powered cybercrime is big. https://www.forbes.com/... Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / @lorenzofb : Fascinating case where a UAE bank was swindled by cybercriminals useing deep fake technology to mimick the voice of an executive from another company. This is only one of a handful of documented cases where criminals have used voice cloning. https://www.forbes.com/... Rachel Tobac / @racheltobac : As technology advances, attackers try new methods. It's easy for me to impersonate & change pitch with a dynamic voice changer in phone attack calls — and deep fake audio calls are possible, less common, but will increase. Update phone verification protocols to mitigate this! https://twitter.com/... Anthony DeRosa / @anthony : The problem here isn't “deep voice” tech. This is a laughably poor security protocol that allows money to be moved with a phone call. https://twitter.com/... Thomas Brewster / @iblametom : The only other time we've seen voice cloning used in a cybercrime was in 2019 and only $200k was stolen. $35m is huge. This was a well-orchestrated heist, according to the court doc, and involved at least 17 people, Dubai investigators believe. https://twitter.com/... Jake Williams / @malwarejake : Well, this is not ideal. But I swear if any of you start pimping “anti-deepfake security tech” that companies spend on instead of investing in core security fundamentals, we will be having words... https://twitter.com/...