Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Criminals used artificial intelligence-based software to impersonate a chief executive's voice and demand a fraudulent transfer of €220,000 ($243,000) in March in what cybercrime experts described as an unusual case of artificial intelligence being used in hacking.
The CEO of a U.K.-based energy firm thought he was speaking on the phone with his boss, the chief executive of the firm's German parent company, who asked him to send the funds to a Hungarian supplier. The caller said the request was urgent, directing the executive to pay within an hour, according to the company's insurance firm, Euler Hermes Group SA.
Euler Hermes declined to name the victim companies.
Law enforcement authorities and AI experts have predicted that criminals would use AI to automate cyberattacks. Whoever was behind this incident appears to have used AI-based software to successfully mimic the German executive's voice by phone. The U.K. CEO recognized his boss' slight German accent and the melody of his voice on the phone, said Rüdiger Kirsch, a fraud expert at Euler Hermes, a subsidiary of Munich-based financial services company Allianz SE.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @02:50AM (2 children)
In a sane world: I guess it's a bad idea to do stuff just because dickwads with the divine mandate of jerb creator from GOP Jeebus can be impersonated over the phone.
In clown world: ban AI.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @02:58AM
The furor over that non-even-a-deepfake Pelosi video gives us an idea of what's coming.
Once we get close to publicized strong AI, people will be killed by SWAT teams for running the wrong code.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @06:23PM
From the summary: "The CEO of a U.K.-based energy firm thought he was speaking on the phone with his boss, the chief executive of the firm's German parent company"
So can you remind me why you are bringing up "GOP Jeebus?"
Also, you are correct. In a sane world, it is a bad idea to do a major financial transaction just because you got a phone call from somebody asking for an urgent request; that's why most companies have a policy to not do that. It sounds like that number of companies just increased by one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @03:44AM (1 child)
Perhaps the CEO is dumb, incompetent, and/or in on the fraud.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @05:22AM
Or all three. I don't believe this story at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @06:13AM (1 child)
"Open the bank vault doors, Dave..."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @03:08PM
Someone hacked into the EBS system at a TV station and broadcast a zombie apocalypse... "The dead are rising from their graves..."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by stretch611 on Friday September 13 2019, @06:57AM
This is a story that should be told to anyone that considers biometrics a good password replacement.
Biometrics can be used for userids... they are horrible replacements of passwords.
This is proof that voices can be reproduced.
There are plenty of stories about how Apple's FaceID/unlock can be duped.
And while I'm sure it is not nearly as easy as it seems in the movies, fingerprints can be faked as well.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @03:08PM
Blowhard lazy unskilled big talker (but no action in provable work done by "it") barbara hudson fails on C and C++ inferiority to P a s c a l on string processing security + speed advantage https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=33430&page=1&cid=889635#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] also caught in lies while quoted stalking others by unidentifiable anonymous posts at the end of that post.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @03:44PM
Blowhard lazy unskilled big talker (but no action in provable work done by "it") barbara hudson fails on C and C++ inferiority to P a s c a l on string processing security + speed advantage https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=33430&page=1&cid=889635#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] also caught in lies while quoted stalking others by unidentifiable anonymous posts at the end of that post.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @04:51PM
Blowhard lazy unskilled big talker (but no action in provable work done by "it") barbara hudson fails on C and C++ inferiority to P a s c a l on string processing security + speed advantage https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=33430&page=1&cid=889635#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] also caught in lies while quoted stalking others by unidentifiable anonymous posts at the end of that post.