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British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25M deepfake scam victim

cnn.com

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Re: British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25M deepfake scam victim

#11

Post by another-dave »

changoplatanero wrote: post #3
tompccs wrote: post #2

I said this over a year ago elsewhere: Electronic engineers spent decades overcoming thermal noise floors so that humans could communicate over vast distances with small amounts of energy. AI researchers, in a few short years, undid all that by making computer-generated chatter and images indistinguishable from messages sent by humans. Until such a time as we live in a Bladerunner-like world of Replicants, being in-p…

Isn't it also possible to scam people in in person meetings by pretending to be someone you aren't? The new thing with deepfakes is that you can pretend to be someone that the victim knows.

When you say in-person in that sense, do you mean video call rather than DM?

I took the GP comment to mean truly in-person, like face-to-face across a table

Re: British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25M deepfake scam victim

#12

Post by Semaphor »

llamaimperative wrote: post #8
bartlettD wrote: post #4

> According to police, the worker had initially suspected he had received a phishing email from the company’s UK office, as it specified the need for a secret transaction to be carried out. However, the worker put aside his doubts after the video call because other people in attendance had looked and sounded just like colleagues he recognized. Regardless of the sophistication of the deepfake, surely this rings huge a…

Big transactions happen and it’s some people’s jobs to execute them

"in secret" is the issue

Re: British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25M deepfake scam victim

#13

Post by markogrady »

bartlettD wrote: post #4

> According to police, the worker had initially suspected he had received a phishing email from the company’s UK office, as it specified the need for a secret transaction to be carried out. However, the worker put aside his doubts after the video call because other people in attendance had looked and sounded just like colleagues he recognized. Regardless of the sophistication of the deepfake, surely this rings huge a…

I've heard this happening for a local company with about £9 million with a similar email scam. Supposedly, the person who transferred the money was competent and clever. With that amount of money, saying you don't need to ask questions, in part, is very convincing.

Re: British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25M deepfake scam victim

#14

Post by csomar »

bartlettD wrote: post #4

> According to police, the worker had initially suspected he had received a phishing email from the company’s UK office, as it specified the need for a secret transaction to be carried out. However, the worker put aside his doubts after the video call because other people in attendance had looked and sounded just like colleagues he recognized. Regardless of the sophistication of the deepfake, surely this rings huge a…

Secret doesn't mean illegal. Unless something is illegal, this guy doesn't have any input and it's up to the auditor to verify the legitimacy of the transactions.

Re: British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25M deepfake scam victim

#15

Post by tgv »

changoplatanero wrote: post #3
tompccs wrote: post #2

I said this over a year ago elsewhere: Electronic engineers spent decades overcoming thermal noise floors so that humans could communicate over vast distances with small amounts of energy. AI researchers, in a few short years, undid all that by making computer-generated chatter and images indistinguishable from messages sent by humans. Until such a time as we live in a Bladerunner-like world of Replicants, being in-p…

Isn't it also possible to scam people in in person meetings by pretending to be someone you aren't? The new thing with deepfakes is that you can pretend to be someone that the victim knows.

Yes, you can also bludgeon someone to death with a rock, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea for everyone to have nukes.

Re: British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25M deepfake scam victim

#16

Post by laurencei »

What I find strange about this is you dont need it to be "deepfake".

Just an inside job.

If a large company allows a single employee to transfer millions to a new bank account/vendor that has no history, on "their belief" the instruction came from an approved person (i.e. their boss, CFO etc) - that company has major governance issues that are not related to deepfake.

Imagine the more simple scenario - an employee transfers millions, knowingly fraudulantly, to some people they are working with. They then simply supply some "deep fake" pictures and a story how it was an accident - and boom; you walk away with millions.

Checks and balances exist for many reasons - deepfake doesnt overcome those by itself. This company is just missing basic steps that would have protected itself here.

edit: in fact- its even more obviously some inside job; put the deepfake aside for a moment. How was the meeting even booked? Their PR person said "none of our internal systems were compromised". So this meeting magically appeared in someone's calendar? Using their internal video system (Skype or Teams or whatever). And the criminals knew to target this person, with enough knowledge of random office people to deep fake them? Come on...

Re: British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25M deepfake scam victim

#17

Post by csomar »

tompccs wrote: post #2

I said this over a year ago elsewhere: Electronic engineers spent decades overcoming thermal noise floors so that humans could communicate over vast distances with small amounts of energy. AI researchers, in a few short years, undid all that by making computer-generated chatter and images indistinguishable from messages sent by humans. Until such a time as we live in a Bladerunner-like world of Replicants, being in-p…

If only, you know, had a simple and efficient way to authenticate messages and emails...

Re: British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25M deepfake scam victim

#18

Post by malermeister »

blitzo wrote: post #10
tompccs wrote: post #2

I said this over a year ago elsewhere: Electronic engineers spent decades overcoming thermal noise floors so that humans could communicate over vast distances with small amounts of energy. AI researchers, in a few short years, undid all that by making computer-generated chatter and images indistinguishable from messages sent by humans. Until such a time as we live in a Bladerunner-like world of Replicants, being in-p…

We need new ident protocol just for AI. I think that's part of Altman doing that orb thingy with iris scanner. It's creepy though and I'll never touch that things.

What's wrong with good ol' private keys?

Re: British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25M deepfake scam victim

#19

Post by netsharc »

Semaphor wrote: post #12
llamaimperative wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big transactions happen and it’s some people’s jobs to execute them

"in secret" is the issue

I guess a scammer can sell it as "we're buying something significant [another company?], this will affect our share price if the info goes out, so you need to sign this NDA and keep this quiet, you're only 1 out of 10 people who knows this...".

They could also sell it as payment for an e.g. consulting firm for the above secret deal...

Re: British engineering giant Arup revealed as $25M deepfake scam victim

#20

Post by ajsnigrutin »

Semaphor wrote: post #12
llamaimperative wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big transactions happen and it’s some people’s jobs to execute them

"in secret" is the issue

There are many secrets in business, especially in realestate.

Found out, from some "unnamed source" that there will be a new bus stop and a new aldi store across the street from a building where some apartments are for sale? Don't mention it to anyone, secretly buy them, because their value will go up a lot, and do it discreetely, so other companies don't notice.

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