The head of the world's leading advertising corporation was tricked with a deepfake.
The head of the world's largest advertising group, WPP, was the victim of a sophisticated deepfake scam, including voice cloning using artificial intelligence. The company's chief executive, Mark Reed, reported the fraud attempt in an email to management, warning other employees against responding to calls purporting to be from senior executives. He noted the extremely high quality of the used deepfakes, which indicates significant resources of intruders.
The scammers created a WhatsApp account using a publicly available image of Reed, and set up a meeting in Microsoft Teams that appeared real thanks to the participation of Reed and another high-ranking WPP employee. During the meeting, they used the cloned voice of the executive director and video materials from YouTube. Reed himself was pictured in the meeting's chat room. Although the fraud was not successful, the target was an "agency manager" who was tried to convince to open a new business to extort money and personal data.
A WPP spokesperson confirmed that thanks to the vigilance of employees, including the injured supervisor, the incident was averted. The company did not disclose exactly when the attack occurred or which other executives were involved.
Over the past year, there has been a sharp increase in the number of hacker attacks using deepfake technologies in the corporate environment. The case of the head of WPP is just the tip of the iceberg. Artificial intelligence for synthesizing and cloning human voices has already allowed cybercriminals to steal tens of millions of dollars from banks and financial companies around the world, raising serious concerns in the field of corporate cybersecurity.
One of the most high-profile incidents was the exposure in 2021 of a fraudulent scheme using deepfakes in an attempt to defraud the investment bank Goldman Sachs for $ 40 million. The head of a defunct digital media startup has admitted to stealing his personal data and falsifying his vote using special software to mislead financiers about a fake deal.
Experts are sounding the alarm - modern technologies of multimedia synthesis based on artificial intelligence are becoming more accessible and reliable. Cyber fraudsters only need to have samples of someone's voice to create an almost indistinguishable fake. In combination with social engineering tools, such deepfakes open up wide opportunities for phishing, identity spoofing, and large-scale financial fraud.
Reed also listed a number of signs to watch out for, including passport requests, money transfers, and mentions of "secret purchases, transactions, or payments that no one knows about."
WPP, a publicly traded company with a market capitalization of about $ 11.3 billion, said on its website that it is fighting fake sites that use its brand and is working with the relevant authorities to stop fraud.
Experts strongly recommend that companies review their information security policies and identification procedures to take into account new threats. Strong multi-factor authentication and in-depth analysis of biometric data are required to protect against cyber attacks using synthetic multimedia technologies.
The head of the world's largest advertising group, WPP, was the victim of a sophisticated deepfake scam, including voice cloning using artificial intelligence. The company's chief executive, Mark Reed, reported the fraud attempt in an email to management, warning other employees against responding to calls purporting to be from senior executives. He noted the extremely high quality of the used deepfakes, which indicates significant resources of intruders.
The scammers created a WhatsApp account using a publicly available image of Reed, and set up a meeting in Microsoft Teams that appeared real thanks to the participation of Reed and another high-ranking WPP employee. During the meeting, they used the cloned voice of the executive director and video materials from YouTube. Reed himself was pictured in the meeting's chat room. Although the fraud was not successful, the target was an "agency manager" who was tried to convince to open a new business to extort money and personal data.
A WPP spokesperson confirmed that thanks to the vigilance of employees, including the injured supervisor, the incident was averted. The company did not disclose exactly when the attack occurred or which other executives were involved.
Over the past year, there has been a sharp increase in the number of hacker attacks using deepfake technologies in the corporate environment. The case of the head of WPP is just the tip of the iceberg. Artificial intelligence for synthesizing and cloning human voices has already allowed cybercriminals to steal tens of millions of dollars from banks and financial companies around the world, raising serious concerns in the field of corporate cybersecurity.
One of the most high-profile incidents was the exposure in 2021 of a fraudulent scheme using deepfakes in an attempt to defraud the investment bank Goldman Sachs for $ 40 million. The head of a defunct digital media startup has admitted to stealing his personal data and falsifying his vote using special software to mislead financiers about a fake deal.
Experts are sounding the alarm - modern technologies of multimedia synthesis based on artificial intelligence are becoming more accessible and reliable. Cyber fraudsters only need to have samples of someone's voice to create an almost indistinguishable fake. In combination with social engineering tools, such deepfakes open up wide opportunities for phishing, identity spoofing, and large-scale financial fraud.
Reed also listed a number of signs to watch out for, including passport requests, money transfers, and mentions of "secret purchases, transactions, or payments that no one knows about."
WPP, a publicly traded company with a market capitalization of about $ 11.3 billion, said on its website that it is fighting fake sites that use its brand and is working with the relevant authorities to stop fraud.
Experts strongly recommend that companies review their information security policies and identification procedures to take into account new threats. Strong multi-factor authentication and in-depth analysis of biometric data are required to protect against cyber attacks using synthetic multimedia technologies.
