Packing batteries with more punch
Indian researchers are working on cells that can store more energy, last longer
File photo
Imagine this.
Scenario 1. Someone’s infuriating, nonsensical words coming out of someone else’s mouth, leaving no iota of doubt among the audience about its genuinity.
Scenario 2. Cyber criminals releasing a made-up video where a CEO of a listed entity confesses that the company missed its earnings or that there’s a fatal flaw in a product that’s going to require a massive recall. This could make shares of that company go for a toss.
Here comes the threat of deepfakes. Armed with advanced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tools, cyber criminals and cliques can churn out videos, making us believe that the people in the video are actually uttering those words.
Even as the world finds it difficult to handle the flood of fake news and doctored videos, the threat of Deepfakes is knocking on our doors.
The Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), a recent analytic technology, can create fake but incredibly realistic images, text, and videos.
With some effort, using certain tools and a few anti-fake news websites and activists, we are at least able to differentiate the difference. The task would be much more difficult and complex with the fake content created using the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions.
McAfee, in its Cyber threat landscape for 2020, says Deepfake video or text can be weaponised to enhance information warfare.
“Freely available video of public comments can be used to train a machine-learning model that can develop of deepfake video depicting one person’s words coming out of another’s mouth,” Raj Samani, Chief Scientist and McAfee Fellow, Advanced Threat Research, has said.
“Attackers can now create automated, targeted content to increase the probability that an individual or groups fall for a campaign. In this way, AI and ML can be combined to create massive chaos,” he says.
“We predict the ability of an untrained class to create deepfakes will enhance an increase in quantity of misinformation,” he says.
“Computers can rapidly process numerous biometrics of a face, and mathematically build or classify human features, among many other applications,” the McAfee executive says.
The coming year would see cyber criminals exploit their extortion victims even more moving forward.
“We predict targeted penetration of corporate networks will continue to grow and ultimately give way to two-stage extortion attacks. In the first stage cyber criminals will deliver a crippling ransomware attack, extorting victims to get their files back,” he says.
“In the second stage criminals will target the recovering ransomware victims again with an extortion attack, but this time they will threaten to disclose the sensitive data stolen before the ransomware attack,” he adds.
McAfee said that Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), which allows two different applications interact with one another and complete the service requests, will continue to be targets for attacks. “Despite the fallout of large-scale breaches and ongoing threats, APIs often still reside outside of the application security infrastructure and are ignored by security processes and teams,” it points out.
“The increasing need and hurried pace of organisations adopting APIs for their applications in 2020 will expose API security as the weakest link leading to cloud-native threats, putting user privacy and data at risk until security strategies mature,” it says.
Indian researchers are working on cells that can store more energy, last longer
To fix a broken bone, doctors often harvest another bone from the patient’s body or from someone else. It ...
Superconductors from IIScScientists at IISc Bangalore have invented a device with a nanocrystal structure ...
Engineering and construction giant L&T has won a licence from the Council of Scientific & Industrial ...
Will a stock continue its current trend or will it reverse? We tell you how you can read chart patterns to ...
Sensex and Nifty 50 saw selling interest on Friday and slumped; selling pressure could continue
Investors with a long-term horizon can consider this offer
Most AMCs have been sending out cryptic e-mails. We tell you how to read between the lines
In these isolated times when people yearn for a slice of the familiar, amateur and professional chefs are ...
Forget the tuna. The island nation will keep you full and happy with coconut, koftas and jasmine
This year, on Facebook, I saw that someone had posted a list of EASY RESOLUTIONS. I didn’t copy them down but ...
With strokes of quirky humour, Partha Pratim Deb uses pulp, terracotta, glass and discarded cloth to create ...
Digital is becoming dominant media, but are companies and their ad agencies transforming fast enough to make a ...
Slow Network, promoted by journalist-lyricist Neelesh Misra, pushes rural products and experiences
How marketers can use the traditional exchange of festive wishes meaningfully
For Fortune, a brand celebrating its 20th anniversary, it was a rude shock to become the butt of social media ...
Three years after its inception, compliance with GST procedures remains a headache for exporters, job workers ...
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of companies are altering the prospects for wooden toys of ...
Aequs Aerospace to create space for large-scale manufacture of toys at Koppal
And it has every reason to smile. Covid-19 has triggered a consumer shift towards branded products as ...
Please Email the Editor