Account takeover (ATO) fraud can be considered one of the most dangerous and rapidly developing cybercrimes in the digital environment of today. With the fraudsters having unauthorised access to erespective user accounts in banks, emails and social networking sites, they are able to plunder vital information, can commit identity thefts and can bring about massive losses to both the individuals and organisations.
Historically, ATO was based upon phishing, credentials stuffing, and brute forcing. However, as cybersecurity progresses, evil actors continue to change their strategies too. Today, ATO is getting even more wayward with the help of deepfake technology, a hazardous invention that is quickly turning fraud schemes on its head.
Definition What Is Account Takeover Frauds?
The account takeover frauds involves a bad actor gaining access to a user account and taking over your account. After gaining access, the hacker will be able to move the amounts, modify the account, or buy something without its owner. The victim is almost always left devoid of the knowledge until the damages have taken place.
The banking sector, on-line shops, and social networks are common prey. An increase in digital banking and remote services in the COVID-19 pandemic further enhanced the pace of ATO incidents because it forced even more people to use online authentication systems that are frequently deployed with low levels of security.
The Deepfake Technology and Its Role in ATO
Into this comes deepfake technology which are AI-based tools that can produce hyper-realistic audio and video replications of actual people. The deepfakes were initially created to be used in the sphere of entertainment and creative content, now the technology became a part of the arsenal of the cybercriminal.
Deepfake technologies can be applied to imitate the voice or the video of the victims to get around the security features such as facial recognition or voice recognition biometrics in the cases of account takeover fraud. In the former case, a fraudster may forge video of a bank client asking to send a wire or employ a cloned voice to stop an account credential reset in the process of identifying verification.
The method is less sophisticated but more persuasive than phishing, the new category is labeled as deepfake fraud. Cybercriminals have used AI-generated audio in 2021 to make fraudulent calls on behalf of a company executive to trick a bank into stealing 35 million dollars by requesting an acquisition. This type of case is a reminder that deepfakes have the capability of enabling high scale ATO events.
A New Threat Channel Deepfake Fraud
The issue of Deepfake fraud is especially worrying since it diminishes confidence in identity confirmation schemes online. Previously a video call or voice prompt could identify the user sufficiently, deepfakes bring doubt on such methods also.
A hacker can use open-source information to feed the model and teach it to impersonate the given target – remember how LinkedIn videos, interviews, or other social media clips are freely available. To bypass the verification processes, using these deepfakes they would have the tools social engineer their way into becoming verified, to a customer service or even an automated system to be able to do this and satisfy them into believing that this is the legitimate account holder.
Besides, deepfake fraud is scalable. As AI-driven tools are becoming more readily available and easier to use, low-skill attackers are also capable of creating realistic impersonations with little effort to achieve.
Deepfakes and the Battle Against ATO
Due to the increasingly advanced deepfake technology, there is a need of an equivalent advanced security measures to be adopted by organizations. Identifying deepfakes is one of the most important paths of innovation; it involves designing AI technology that could detect altered pictures, videos, or audio files.
The following are some of the practices employed by organizations to fight against ATO and deepfake associated fraud:
Multi-factor Authentication (MFA): This is not always foolproof, but it is a very important form of defense. It is possible to further complicate unauthorized access by adding such steps as verification via biometrics, verification of devices, and location checks.
Behavioral Biometrics: The behavior of people in front of computers is measured in this way to identify aberrance that may indicate an appropriation of the accounts.
Artificial Intelligence Deepfake Detection: The new software recognizes the slight inconsistencies of deepfake media, like unrealistic blinking, lack synchronization of lighting, or video and audio. They are being used in video verification systems to detect the suspicious material on the fly.
Continuous Authentication: Rather than identifying the user just before he logs in, continuous authentication keeps track of the user during that session and ensures users are who they say they are.
Employee Training: ATO attacks usually rely on social engineering as a means to form the attack. Therefore, it is necessary to train customer service employees as well as security staff on how to detect deepfake fraud attempts.
Awareness Campaigns: People have to be raised aware of dangers of sharing personal contents online, which can be used to train deepfake models.
Looking Ahead
There is a perilous development being born by the combination of account takeover fraud and deepfake technology. With the prevalence of AI upsurge not only in the strategies of security but also in fraud techniques, the boundary between a legitimate and an artificial keeps narrowing.
But there is no doom and gloom too. Hopefully, as the AI-powered tools to counteract deepfakes continue to be developed and implemented, the cybersecurity community will be able to achieve high success in deepfake detection. Companies and legislators are also starting to pay attention as there is proposed legislation meant to limit the abuse of synthetic media.
Businesses should go a step further to keep afloat: investing in next-generation authentication, incorporating fraud protection protocols, and promoting a digital, skeptical culture. In the meantime, people should be more cautious and employ good digital hygiene by not clicking on unfamiliar links, and; secondly, even suspecting that someone might not be who they claim to be, despite using a familiar voice.
Final Thoughts
Account compromise is not a new issue; however, the tools and methods used by the criminals are changing at a great pace. As deepfake fraud is becoming more common, its identification cannot be accomplished through the old identity verification methods. To guarantee that the trust in the online identities can be maintained even in the era of artificial intelligence, organizations have to adopt next-gen cybersecurity solutions, focus on deepfake detection, and educate their users.
