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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

#51

Post by pjc50 »

bsenftner wrote: post #39
laurencei wrote: post #16

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 tr…

You're the only commenter using critical analysis, everyone else is just flapping their jaws. I hate discussing deepfakes. I'm one of the original patent holders of automated actor replacement technology. I developed it for personalized advertising, after having been an actor replacement specialist in a bunch of VFX film you probably saw. I spent from 2002 to '08 creating a VFX pipeline, with global patent protection…

> went to VCs and angels and they were perfectly winning to fund a porn company, but not what I'd planned: an ethical rollout of a sensitive and very powerful technology with many legs

Well, yes, that's kind of what the rest of us have come to expect from the industry. Ethical rollout is always going to take a back seat to raking in as much money as possible. I'm slightly surprised they were willing to touch porn though, not for "ethical" concerns but because it's treated as radioactive by payment services.

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

#52

Post by jfoster »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #20
Semaphor wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

It's a bit surprising that Aldi (and other supermarket chains) generally don't invest in residential real estate.

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

#54

Post by pjc50 »

imgabe wrote: post #48
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…

I know it's a meme and all, but doesn't blockchain solve this? Ok, Mr. Guy who looks like my boss on Video Call, I can send those funds, just sign the transaction with your private key and it'll all be done.

Blockchain does not authenticate the receiver, so there are all sorts of attacks involving substituting the payment address, from dumb (stickers over QR codes) to sophisticated.

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

#55

Post by bongodongobob »

masto wrote: post #45
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…

When I'm on a company video call, the people I'm meeting with are logged into their company accounts, through the fancy company authentication system. Large warnings are displayed if there are any external participants, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's possible to disable the ability to even have guests. Third-party video conference software is banned and blocked from installation on work computers. I am not in th…

Almost everywhere I've worked disallows external participants on Teams by default. We add exceptions when needed. I don't know if this is standard, but has been at the larger companies I've worked at.

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

#56

Post by pjc50 »

malermeister wrote: post #18
blitzo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

PKI is a pretty old idea. People were trying to deploy it in the 90s. It turns out that managing the issuing and authentication of keys, as well as keeping them secure and if necessary revoking them, is such a huge headache that few organizations have managed to do it properly. It might be possible to do better now with TPMs in laptops and phones; essentially this is why Apple Pay is now slightly more trusted than plastic cards.

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

#57

Post by pjc50 »

csomar wrote: post #17
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...

The tech has existed for decades but is clearly not simple.

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

#58

Post by Tao3300 »

el_oni wrote: post #28
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…

Yeah, this would at least cause me to email my boss and say "Can you just confirm, you want me to transfer $25 million to this account? I'll hold off until you give me confirmation in writing" hell i do this if our tester hasn't managed to go over some aspect of our release. That way i get in writing from the product owner that he has OKd it, and if he sends me a teams message i ask him to email me confirmation.

Reminds me of that old urban legend about the trader who ordered the coal futures that eventually showed up as actual coal. In that story there's always an element where the subordinates who have to carry out the transactions have been abused to the point of never questioning his decisions.

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

#59

Post by wasteduniverse »

bsenftner wrote: post #39
laurencei wrote: post #16

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 tr…

You're the only commenter using critical analysis, everyone else is just flapping their jaws. I hate discussing deepfakes. I'm one of the original patent holders of automated actor replacement technology. I developed it for personalized advertising, after having been an actor replacement specialist in a bunch of VFX film you probably saw. I spent from 2002 to '08 creating a VFX pipeline, with global patent protection…

[dead]

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

#60

Post by mewpmewp2 »

imgabe wrote: post #48
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…

I know it's a meme and all, but doesn't blockchain solve this? Ok, Mr. Guy who looks like my boss on Video Call, I can send those funds, just sign the transaction with your private key and it'll all be done.

Why do you need blockchain for signing with private key.
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