Can I see some ID? Deepfakes are pushing the digital identity business to play catch-up
How can businesses and their people trust that someone actually is who they say they are? It’s tougher than ever to know for sure.
The story that’s spooked everyone: Scammers duped a Hong Kong finance worker into shelling out $25 million-by using AI-powered deepfake technology to pose as the company’s CFO and other staff members during a video call.
Granted, that’s an elaborate ruse. But the threat of similar trickery has left providers of digital identity verification scrambling to catch up.
Just ask Franz Gilbert, a managing director at Deloitte, where he’s global growth leader for human capital ecosystems and alliances. Gilbert, who spends a lot of time talking with HR tech providers, is also hearing from clients worried about visual deepfakes.
Their line of questioning: How do I know the person I interviewed is the same person that I printed out a badge for, Gilbert relates, and is the same person that four months from now is actually sitting behind the keyboard and doing the work?
The digital trust market is booming. By 2030, it’s expected to grow to almost $190 billion worldwide, more than double its value last year.
AI is definitely going to live up to the hype, says Todd McKinnon, cofounder and CEO of employee and customer identity platform Okta. As he points out, someone could create a fake video of me that says I need a new password.
The vendors making tools to defend companies against that have to step up, McKinnon says. I think some of that is actually going to be done with AI itself as well.
Deepfakes are just part of the problem. Because biometrics and hardware tokens have made it harder to break into people’s accounts, threat actors have moved upstream with their phishing efforts, McKinnon observes. Continue reading →
