Whaling With A Deepfake

What You'll Learn in Whaling With A Deepfake

• Identify current visual and audio artifacts in deepfake video including lip-sync delays, unnatural eye movement, and phoneme distortion
• Apply out-of-band verification by calling the executive's known phone number on a separate device to confirm video call requests
• Implement procedural controls including pre-established code words and multi-person authorization that defeat deepfakes regardless of quality
• Recognize that no financial transaction should ever be authorized solely through a video call, regardless of who appears to be on screen
• Distinguish between real-time deepfake video calls and pre-recorded deepfake voicemails used in combined whaling and vishing attacks

Whaling With A Deepfake Training Steps

1. Introduction

   Alice, VP of Finance at Nexlify Solutions, is having a busy Friday afternoon. She's scheduled to leave for a two-week vacation to Europe starting Monday morning, and there are numerous financial reports to finalize and approvals to complete before her departure. Alice sits at her desk, reviewing quarterly budget allocations on her laptop. Her calendar shows back-to-back meetings for the rest of the day, and her email inbox displays 47 unread messages. She takes a sip of coffee and sighs, knowing it's going to be a long evening of catching up on work.

2. An Unexpected Meeting Invitation

   Alice's email notification chimes. She opens her email application and sees a new message from what appears to be CEO's email with the subject line 'URGENT: Confidential Board Meeting - Immediate Attention Required'

3. Joining the Zoom Meeting

   Despite feeling slightly rushed, Alice notices the urgency in the CEO's tone and immediately clicks the Zoom link. The meeting loads quickly, and she sees what appears to be Michael Thompson on camera. The video quality seems slightly pixelated, but Alice attributes this to network issues.

4. Joining the Video Call

   Alice joins the call. She does not know that this entire call is a pre-recorded AI-enhanced video and CEO's face that appears on screen is actually an AI-generated deepfake. CEO begins speaking immediately. The voice sounds exactly like Michael Thompson, and the facial features are convincing despite some minor video artifacts.

5. The Secret Acquisition

   Michael informed the call participants that the company is secretly acquiring TechFlow Industries and requires a rapid response. The board has approved the deal, but a $2.8 million wire transfer must be arranged by the finance department before the end of the day to secure the deposit. The matter is highly confidential, and banking details will follow soon. CEO emphasized not to contact them directly, as he will be occupied in continuous legal meetings for the rest of the day.

6. The Wire Transfer Instructions Arrive

   Twenty minutes later, another email arrives from the same sender address. Alice is still at her desk, trying to wrap up her vacation preparations.

7. Accessing Payment System

   Alice logs into Nexlify's financial portal and initiates a wire transfer to the bank account details provided in Michael email.

8. Submitting The Transfer Details

   She enters all the banking details from the email: the beneficiary name 'TechFlow Acquisition Holdings LLC,' the account number, routing number, and the amount of $2,850,000. Alice double-checks the numbers against the email and proceeds with the authorization. The transaction is successfully submitted and will be processed within 24 hours. She feels accomplished having handled this urgent request efficiently before her vacation.

9. The Real CEO's Email

   Three hours later, as Alice is about to leave the office for the weekend, she receives another email. This time it's from the real CEO's actual email address.

10. The Realization

    Alice goes back to review the earlier email from the CEO. Something doesn't look right. She examines the sender's email address more closely.