AI Summary
5 min readIn February 2024, a finance worker at a Hong Kong company joined a video call with his CFO and several other colleagues. The CFO gave instructions about a confidential acquisition. The employee wired $25 million to five different bank accounts. The only real person on that call was the victim. Everyone else—the CFO and six other colleagues—was a real-time deepfake avatar. The employee had been initially suspicious after receiving a phishing email, but the video call convinced him. This is not a future threat. It is a current, operational attack method, and it is already being used to steal millions.
The Deepfake Threat Is Already Here
The Hong Kong case is not an isolated anomaly. It represents a step change in what is commercially available. For $20 to $30 a month, anyone can create a live, interactive avatar that speaks in 45 languages. The quality has improved so rapidly that it is now undetectable to the human eye. The hosts note that older deepfakes had tells—unnatural blinking, blurring around the mouth, or glitchy head movements—but those artifacts are disappearing. What was once a parlor trick is now a credible threat.
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of Cyber Crime Junkies
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (03:04) **Introducing the Guests and the AI Risk Topic** - Host David Morrow welcomes cybersecurity experts Nick Mullen and Nick Oles to discuss AI's impact on business cyber risk.
- 2 (05:31) **Origin Stories: From Bouncer to Cybersecurity** - Nick Mullen explains how a security architect used physical security analogies (locks, fences, motion detectors) to make cybersecurity click for him.
- 3 (11:36) **Origin Stories: From Help Desk to Military Cyber** - Nick Oles describes starting as a college help desk tech, then transitioning into military IT and cybersecurity.
- 4 (15:42) **The Deepfake Threat: From Detectable to Undetectable** - Discussion of how deepfake technology has evolved from easily spotted to commercially available and nearly undetectable.
- 5 (19:17) **The Hong Kong $25 Million Deepfake Heist** - Detailed breakdown of a real-time deepfake video call that tricked a finance employee into wiring $25 million.
- 6 (25:20) **Audio Deepfake and the UK CEO Scam** - A precursor case: a CEO's voice was cloned to authorize a $243,000 wire transfer to a known colleague.
- 7 (26:56) **The Hong Kong Heist: Full Breakdown** - Detailed analysis of the $25 million deepfake video call, emphasizing the sophistication of organized crime.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Experts Nick Mullen and Nick Oles discuss artificial intelligence and the impact of ai on business cyber risk. They share their personal stories of how they got into the field and highlight the importance of understanding the analogies between physical and cybersecurity controls.
Nick Oles is author of How to Catch a Phish [email protected] https://thenetdefender.com/
Nick Mull
New non-fiction Book Series is out!
- Moving Target: The Art of Online Camouflage drops April 14.
- Moving Target: The Obedient Machine drops April 21.
- Book 3 -- Ghost and the Machine -- out soon!
- 4 years. 400+ interviews. Available on Amazon. We are all Stevie Parker.
Growth without Interruption. Get peace of mind. Stay Competitive-Get NetGain. Contact NetGain today at 844-777-6278 or reach out at [email protected] or find more at www.NETGAINIT.com
New non-fiction Book Series is out!
- Moving Target: The Art of Online Camouflage drops April 14.
- Moving Target: The Obedient Machine drops April 21.
- Book 3 -- Ghost and the Machine -- out soon!
- 4 years. 400+ interviews. Available on Amazon. We are all Stevie Parker.
New Exclusive Offers for our Listeners!
New non-fiction Book Series is out!
- Moving Target: The Art of Online Camouflage drops April 14.
- Moving Target: The Obedient Machine drops April 21.
- Book 3 -- Ghost and the Machine -- out soon!
🔥 4 years. 400+ interviews. Available on Amazon<
More from this podcast
Cyber Crime Junkies →