Episode 8.6 -- Bad month for cyber criminals.

Published: Feb. 24, 2024, 12:14 a.m.

It has been a bad month for cybercrime. Yes, attacks are on the way up. Yes, they are still extorting money and causing infrastructure chaos. But there is a massive, shadow-busting spotlight on them right where they live and defense technology is advanced enough that they are hearing footfalls of law enforcement behind them.

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Recently a faked call from "President Joe Biden" to New Hampshire Democrats urged them not to vote in the state\u2019s primary. It only took a few weeks using AI-detection tools to not only identify what company provided the technology but also the user himself.

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For today\u2019s episode, we followed this theme and called one of our favorite technologists, Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO of Pindrop, whose technology can reliably identify AI-generated video and audio tech. Vijay would not confirm whether his product was used in this investigation.

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You will hear him demur that \u201cwe can\u2019t comment on an active investigation.\u201d But he said it in such a way that I\u2019m pretty sure it was. Also, he was interviewed for articles in Wired where he said his tool identified the call as a fake with a factor \u201cnorth of 99 percent.\u201d Independent researchers at first claimed that number was hard to believe, but after running their own tests grudgingly admitted, \u201cYeah, that's pretty close.\u201d

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BTW, this episode is sponsored by Safety National Insurance

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