Educate yourself and others on how to spot a Deepfake

Rashmika Mandanna Deepfake AI Video Viral Latest News: Recently, a video of actress Rashmika Mandanna went viral on social media, which caught the attention of not only big actors but also cabinet ministers. This video of the actress went viral in an obscene manner. This video was a fake video. This video was made using deepfake technology of AI and in this video the face of the actress was pasted on the face of another girl. After this video went viral, while the superstar of the century Amitabh Bachchan called this a serious matter of concern, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar assured the people and talked about cyber security.

"Social media platform X is now filled with porn videos"

X (formerly Twitter) is now flooded with porn videos and the platform is filled with deepfake porn videos of actresses. Boom Decode published a report on a similar case and traced some of the users.

According to the report, "An X (formerly Twitter) handle called @crazyashfan describes himself as a ‘photo and video manipulation artist’. He finds pornographic content and then using AI, manipulates them to show Indian actresses’ faces instead of the original adult stars’.

This X handle which has 39 posts include morphed AI-generated videos of Alia Bhatt, Kiara Advani, Kajol, Deepika Padukone and many other Bollywood actresses performing explicit sexual acts. The 4 accounts that he follows on X are all similar in nature— creating deepfakes of Indian actresses."

A few days ago, female students at a high school in the US discovered that male students had deepfaked them using AI and shared it on a group chat. The investigation is still ongoing but it proved that all it takes to create a deepfake is a phone and an AI tool.

"A Similar case had also come to light from a private school in Chandigarh."

Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who has researched digital forensics and image analysis, told Axios that while it would take hundreds and thousands of images to create deepfakes, it takes only one photo now

According to Amsterdam-based cybersecurity company DeepTrace, "96% of deepfake videos on the Internet are pornographic videos".

You may be the next target?

Because... All it takes to create a deepfake is one photo. The tools used to create them are easily available. “Some resources are being worked upon to give help to individuals as law has not kept up with it. Our police forces are not trained nor are our judges or courts,”

Among the resources, the Detect Fakes website created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to help people identify deepfakes.“- SFLC founder Mishi Chaudhary told Decode.

Mishi Chaudhary said, “Deepfakes have been an area of concern in the development of AI. It is being used to spread misinformation, propaganda, harass, intimidate, create obscene images and weaken people in many other ways. Research designed to help detect deepfakes helps improve deepfake technology. The images and videos found by Decode are not from some obscure corner of the dark web, but are available on all mainstream social media platforms – X. X accounts also have their own Telegram channels, asking people to DM them with personal requests...

How to Identify Deepfakes

- Unnatural Eye Movements: Look for unnatural eye movements, such as no blinking or erratic movements.?

- Mismatches in Color and Lighting: Notice mismatches in color and lighting between the face and the background.?

- Audio Quality: Compare and contrast audio quality and see if it matches the lip movements.?

- Visual Inconsistencies: Analyze visual inconsistencies, such as strange body shape or movement, artificial facial movements, unnatural positioning of facial features, or awkward posture or physique.?

- Reverse Image Search: Reverse image search the video or the person to see if they are real or not.?

- Video Metadata: Inspect video metadata and see if it has been altered or edited.?

- Deepfake Detection Tools: Use deepfake detection tools, such as online platforms or browser extensions, that can flag suspicious videos.

Good Security Practices

- Technology isn't the only way to protect against Deepfake videos. Good basic security procedures are remarkably efficient at countering Deepfake. For instance, having automatic checks built into any process for disbursing funds would have stopped many Deepfake and similar frauds. 

- Ensure employees and family know about how Deepfaking works and the challenges it can pose. Educate yourself and others on how to spot a Deepfake. Make sure you are media literate and use good quality news sources.

- Have good basic protocols - "trust but verify". A skeptical attitude to voicemail and videos won't guarantee you'll never be deceived, but it can help you avoid many traps.

- Remember that if Deepfake starts to be deployed by hackers in their attempts to break into home and business networks, then basic cyber-security practice will play a vital role when it comes to minimizing the risk. Regular backups protect your data against ransomware and gives you the ability to restore damaged data.

- Using different, strong passwords for different accounts means just because one network or service has been broken into doesn't mean any others have been compromised. If someone gets into your Facebook account, you don't want them to be able to get into your other accounts as well.

- Use a good security package such as Kaspersky's Total Security to protect your home network, laptop and smartphone against cyber threats. This package provides anti-virus software, a VPN to stop your Wi-Fi connections being hacked, and protection for your webcams, as well.

Sources of the Story:

Boom Decode Report On Deepfakes 
Business Standard Report
Kaspersky Security Report