In the digital age, social media has revolutionized the way businesses connect with their audience, transforming marketing, customer service and brand engagement. However, this powerful tool comes with a dark side that can jeopardize the very essence of a company's reputation and trust. The rapid spread of misinformation and the emergence of deepfakes—hyper-realistic but fake videos and images—poses unprecedented challenges for digital users. For businesses, acquiring an ability to navigate these treacherous waters by verifying information before reacting is not just a precaution; it's a necessity for survival in today's volatile information landscape.
The Rise of Misinformation and Deepfakes
Misinformation is not new. It is probably as old as human speech. But the vehicle for transmission changes with increasing rapidity. It’s currently social media, but what next?
Anyway, misinformation refers to false or misleading information spread unintentionally or deliberately. On social media, any digital content can go viral quickly, leading to widespread confusion and potential harm, and a lot of this is misinformation. In the past, the media content was controlled by journalists, who would be greatly embarrassed it they didn’t get their facts right and sent out a false story. “Normal” people don’t have any such checks on their activity. People generally just want to be entertained.
A related and even more insidious threat is the advent of deepfakes—synthetic media where a person’s likeness is convincingly superimposed onto another's body or speech is altered. These tools can be used to create highly realistic but entirely fabricated videos and images, often with malicious intent.
Apparently some pictures that appeared in the print and TV media were fakes, but the term “deepfake” indicates the difficult of spotting them quickly enough.
The Impact on Businesses
Because people (particularly older people) are not accustomed to seeing faked images in print or on the TV, they just assume that they are not faked. They are easily fooled, and, sadly, others will call them suckers for falling for the deception.
Misinformation and deepfakes can therefore impact and damage businesses in many ways. False information about a company’s products, services, or practices can damage its reputation, erode customer trust, and lead to financial losses. Deepfake images can even be used to impersonate executives or employees, leading to potential security breaches or fraudulent activities. The problem is growing.
Cybersecurity Implications
The cybersecurity landscape is also significantly affected by the rise of misinformation and deepfakes. These technologies are not just a threat to reputation but also to security protocols. For instance:
1. Phishing Attacks: Deepfakes can be used to create convincing videos of executives giving instructions to employees, leading to phishing attacks where sensitive information is divulged.
2. Fraudulent Transactions: Impersonation of key personnel through deepfakes can lead to unauthorized financial transactions. Cybercriminals can mimic voices or appearances to deceive finance departments into transferring large sums of money.
3. Data Breaches: Misinformation can be a precursor to more sophisticated cyberattacks. For example, spreading false information about a data breach can cause panic, leading to hasty and unsecure responses from the IT department, inadvertently creating vulnerabilities.
A recent example of the danger of Deepfakes on the BBC
Any computer network can communicate text, images, and even videos, but the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (now X) are deliberately enhanced to encourage communication to many people (i.e. getting a tweet or Facebook post “trending”). Malicious postings are deliberately intended to discredit and defame, and there are many victims.
Wes Streeting, a British politician, was recently a victim of a deepfake smear network on X. “Deepfaking” image and video technologies are now very sophisticated and can easily be weaponized to attack public figures and institutions, causing substantial harm to reputations and trust.
The Role of Verification
Just as disinformation is as old as the hills, so is one time-tried method of exposing it. Checking if it is true, or verification. Good journalists have been using verification for centuries. It is generally known as “checking your sources”.
In the age of digital deepfakes, businesses must adopt robust verification practices regarding anything they send out or read about themselves. Key steps:
1. Educate and Train Employees
Ensure they understand the risks! Training programs should teach staff how to identify suspicious content and the importance of verifying information before sharing it.
Businesses are inherently more trusted due to their established reputations and perceived authority in their fields. Therefore, they must be particularly careful about what they share, as their endorsement or dissemination of information can significantly influence public perception and behaviour.
Ensuring accuracy and reliability in their communications is essential to maintaining this trust and preventing the spread of misinformation. Additionally, verifying the information or spotting a fake, is key in preventing a successful Phishing scam or other serious consequences as a result of a cyber-attack.
2. Use Verification Tools
Various tools are available that use AI to identify deepfakes and flag misleading content.
3. Develop a Crisis Response Plan
Have a clear plan in place to counter the spread of misinformation or deepfakes involving your business, when it becomes apparent. This plan should include communication strategies to correct that false information swiftly and effectively.
4. Collaborate with Industry Peers
Collective efforts can be more effective than isolated actions. Working with other businesses in similar market segments, industry groups, and regulatory bodies are effective in sharing information and strategies for combating misinformation and deepfakes in a particular field.
5. Engage with Trusted Sources
This is what journalists do. Build relationships with reputable news organizations and industry experts. Having access to reliable sources of information can help businesses identify facts that are really lies before they make a fool of themselves. Such people are also often good at countering misinformation that has been identified.
Think Before You React!
In the age of instant information, it is crucial not to react impulsively to what you read online. Here are a few reasons why careful consideration and verification are essential:
1. Preventing Panic and Misjudgement: Immediate reactions to unverified information can lead to unnecessary panic and poor decision-making. For instance, responding to false rumours about a product defect could cause unwarranted alarm among customers and harm sales. Additionally taking time to read, analyse, verify and understand properly can prevent you from making a snap decision compromising your organisation’s security.
2. Maintaining Professional Integrity: Businesses that consistently verify information before acting demonstrate a commitment to accuracy and integrity. This approach fosters trust among customers, partners, and stakeholders.
3. Avoiding Legal Repercussions: Sharing or acting on false information can result in legal consequences, including defamation lawsuits, fines as a result of data breaches or regulatory penalties. Verifying facts helps mitigate these risks.
4. Building Credibility: Companies that fact-check and rely on verified information build stronger reputations. Credibility is a valuable asset in an era where misinformation can quickly erode public trust.
5. Supporting Informed Decision-Making: Accurate information is the foundation of sound business decisions. Verification ensures that strategies and responses are based on truth, not speculation or falsehoods and helps to avoid costly security mistakes.
Conclusion
Social media can be used by malicious threat actors to spread misinformation and deepfakes which presents a significant cybersecurity challenge for businesses. The incident involving Wes Streeting and the deepfake smear network serves as a stark reminder of how easily reputations can be targeted and manipulated, but the risks extend far beyond reputation damage. Cybersecurity threats such as phishing attacks, fraudulent transactions, and data breaches are increasingly being facilitated by sophisticated misinformation and deepfake tactics.
By prioritizing robust verification processes, educating employees on cybersecurity best practices, and leveraging advanced detection technologies, businesses can better protect themselves against these evolving threats. Ensuring that your cybersecurity strategy includes defences against misinformation and deepfakes is not just a precaution—it's essential for maintaining the trust and confidence of your stakeholders. In an age where digital threats are constantly evolving, thinking before reacting and verifying information is crucial to safeguarding your business's integrity and security.
Useful Links:
Disclaimer
We have no affiliation with any company, service, or software mentioned in this article. The tools and resources listed are provided solely for informational purposes. Readers are advised to use and visit these resources at their discretion and to conduct their own research to determine their suitability and credibility.
Deepfake detection tool unveiled by Microsoft:
1.Hoaxy: This tool visualizes the spread of claims and fact-checking on social media. It can help identify how misinformation propagates through networks.
2. InVID WeVerify: A browser plugin that helps verify the authenticity of online videos and images. It includes tools for reverse image search, keyframe extraction, and metadata analysis.
3. Deepware Scanner: An AI-powered tool designed to detect deepfake videos. It analyzes video content to identify signs of manipulation.
4. TruePic: This platform offers photo and video verification solutions, using image forensics and blockchain technology to ensure content authenticity.
5. Sensity: Provides deepfake detection and monitoring services. Sensity's platform uses AI to identify and track deepfakes across various media channels.
1. National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC): Offers guidance on handling misinformation and deepfakes, particularly in the context of cybersecurity.
2. MediaWise by Poynter: Provides tools and resources to help people, including businesses, become more media literate and better at spotting misinformation.
3. MIT Media Lab's Detect Fakes Project: Research on developing tools and methods to detect deepfakes and other synthetic media. This link will take you to a web page asking you to take part in an experiment to determine if you can spot an AI generated image or not.
4. Deeptrace (now Sensity): Research articles and white papers on the impact of deepfakes and synthetic media.
5. Google Fact Check Tools: Tools and databases provided by Google to verify facts and check the credibility of information found online.
Comments