Can AI And Blockchain Be Used In The Fight Against Deep Fake?

In this article, we will discuss how blockchain can be used in the fight against deep fake.

Cybercrimes have been troubling employers, CEOs, organizations as well as national security for a long time. With time, these crimes, and technological sophistication, cybercrimes have only increased further. One of the most common yet threatening crimes in the cyber world is Deepfake.

Deep fake is a cybercriminal technique to imitate people’s faces to recreate a recording, making it look real. The Deepfake videos and audios are used to deceive organizations as well as people to give in their money to the criminals. Additionally, they are used to spread false information.

Most people use the faces of celebrities to create fake clips for fun. However, this can even create adverse damage at a larger scale. According to Republican Senator Marco Rubio, the Deepfake is a threat to national security and can cause irreplaceable damage.

Previously people used to fight nuclear wars, but now nations are threatened by serious cybercrimes, including Deepfake. The threat posed by Deepfake can damage the integrity of institutions and can cause a lot of monetary loss as well.

In this article, we discuss the effectiveness of AI in combating Deepfake and how it can be used effectively:  

More About Deep Fake

 

Most people are aware of the cybercrime “phishing” where the cybercriminal emails asking for personal details, often attracting people as if they have won a lottery. This also involves asking for a money transaction.

However, Deepfake involves realistic audio/visual imitations. For example, if you receive a call from your boss or a coworker who is asking you to perform an action, you would immediately perform it provided that you trust the person calling. Imitation of voices is often more convincing than receiving an email.

Deep fake video targets are often politicians, celebrities, or other famous figures because of the already available pool of data online. It gets easier to superimpose videos and images to create a fake clip. However, this isn’t limited to celebrities and famous figures only.

According to the Washington Post, a fraud case in 2019 involved a robbery of €220,000 using Deepfake. The criminals copied the voice of the chief executive of the company and asked the said employer to transfer the funds to a Hungarian account.

With the rise of the use of digital media and information sharing platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, it is becoming a challenge to stay protected from sophisticated cybercriminals.

Deepfake: Threats and Risks

Deep fake has a lot of agendas and purposes, including destroying people’s reputations and spreading false and malignant information. While this is concerning enough as it is, even more concerning is the fact that it could be a threat to national security as well.

Several incidents have shown Deepfake used to defame social activists, politicians, and other integral entities involved. These technologies are often used to destroy and damage the reputation of people for political or personal gain.

According to a report by Witness Media Lab, the tools and technologies that must be used to fight and identify Deepfake include the usage of blockchain technology as well as artificial intelligence. However, these technologies can be used to identify and secure systems and security, it is still not the sure-shot solution.  

 

Blockchain And AI To Fight Deep Fake

Cybercrime experts are trying their best to fight Deepfake and raise awareness about how to identify a Deepfake. Several organizations are actively working towards staying protected and training their staff to be active about the threats.

Neutralizing the threat of Deepfake is becoming a need rather than a luxury. Experts are avidly working towards the inclusion of Blockchain as well as artificial intelligence to detect Deepfake and other cybercrimes. Blockchain technologies can help provide better security by ensuring authentication.

Blockchain technology is a decentralized ledger that is used to maintain records of cryptocurrency. To put it simply, blockchains are threads that contain blocks or chunks of information used to verify cryptocurrency transactions. Blocks not only contain information about the transaction, but also the participants.

Most importantly, each block of information is identifiable from others because it has a unique hash associated with it. Therefore, it can serve to identify the person who carried out the transaction. Some experts argue that this same authentication process can be applied to actual information to combat Deepfake content. It can also help fight Deepfakes using checks to verify the sources.

Blockchain technology is, however, still vulnerable to highly crafted cyber-attacks but provides a protective layer that can somehow make it harder for criminals to invade. Therefore, companies must remain vigilant and develop a 360-degree cybersecurity approach to combat Deepfake and other cybercrimes.

 Along with Blockchain technology, this includes staff training, efficient internet infrastructure, and AI integration. Let’s look at them in detail:

Staff Training

Cybersecurity experts are emphasizing on the importance of training your staff and educating them about serious threats posed by crimes such as Deepfake. According to Jake Moore, a cyber-security expert, in this modern era where we are very much exposed through the internet, we must expect such threats caused by cyberbullies.

There is a high risk of potential crimes in the near future about which we should proactively be working. As you can already see a lot of fake videos online, which is a warning for a dangerous time ahead.

Training your staff about the detection of Deepfake is essential and ensuring two-way authentication can provide you with better security. Using two-factor authentication (2FA) and one time use OTPs, you can not only secure your information but can also add a protective layer that gets harder for the criminals to break.

Internet Infrastructure

A state of the art internet infrastructure that allows fast-speed internet transmission is essential to cybersecurity. Slwo speed and outdated connections are more vulnerable to cybercrimes as they are easier to hack.

Organziations must make sure that they upgrade their hardware and software to ensure maximum protection from online criminals. This includes increased security protocol adoption across the supply chain, increased vendor security, maintain signaling and routing security standrads, and ensure communication stability through updated infrastructure by using state of the art hardware like Coaxial Cables and fiber optics.

AI To Detect Deepfake

Algorithms by Machine Learning often recognize the patterns used to create Deepfake and can be used to identify the difference between a real versus a fake one. The audio Deepfake can be identified using specific algorithms in machine learning. Classification techniques are often used to help identify the differences that are being masked and are harder to recognize by the human ear.

Image identification can be used in audio spectrograms in determining the differences. However, it is still not a bullet-proof solution. Any glitches or interferences caused in the call must be confirmed as they might occur while masking. However, better models of machine learning are being researched to detect malicious acts for the future and other sophisticated attempts to steal information.

Author Bio: 
Arslan Hassan is an electrical engineer with a passion for writing, designing, and anything tech-related. His educational background in the technical field has given him the edge to write on many topics. He occasionally writes blog articles for Shireen Inc.