DAYTON — Criminals are using artificial intelligence to steal people’s identities.
The Federal Trade Commission reported more than a million victims of identity fraud, just in the first nine months of last year. And 278 million people were told their information was compromised.
The I-Team’s Consumer Investigator, Xavier Hershovtiz, talked with cybersecurity experts, learning how consumers can protect their personal information.
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Bryan Fite spends a lot of time behind a screen. In fact, he’s built a career out of it, where he has spent the past 30 years in cybersecurity as a hacker.
“I really had a passion for the hacker culture,” Fite said.
But what he does is much different than the criminal hackers consumers are probably thinking of.
“Criminals are criminals, and they will use the techniques that work best, where I would say hackers are more inclined to want the systems to be secure,” Fite said.
He has watched the advances of artificial intelligence over the years and the rapid advances recently.
“You might not want to have anything to do with A.I., but A.I. wants to have something to do with you,” Fite said.
He has set up a low-level deep fake technology to show News Center 7 in real time how this can work. “We would actually create a new character,” Fite said.
The tech takes another face and puts it on the body of Xavier Hershovitz. From Mr. Bean to the Joker and even Jackie Chan.
Michael Bruemmer is the head of Global Data Breach Resolutions for the credit bureau Experian. In their annual Future of Fraud Forecast, the credit bureau warns that A.I. and deep fakes will supercharge fraud.
“It’s supercharging existing fraud threats to a degree where they are easier to execute. They run faster, and then when the fraud is occurring, they’re harder to detect.” Bruemmer said.
He warns it’s not just deep fakes that consumers must be concerned about. With several data breaches, an all-time high last year.
“Everybody’s been compromised. It may be just your email address, your address, phone number, but it could be much more extensive,” Bruemmer said.
He says this new A.I. tech will allow criminals to quickly sift through data already out there and easily put the pieces together.
So, one breach may have gotten your email, another your medical records, and your driver’s license.
“That puts you at great risk because they can put the pieces together to be more opportunistic on what they go after,” Bruemmer said.
Eva Velasquez is the CEO of the nonprofit, Identity Theft Resource Center.
“I think we should all be concerned about how A.I. is impacting the entire fraud system, including identity theft and misuse,” Velasquez said.
She continued to say, from the amount of personal information already out there to the use of A.I. deepfakes, anyone could fall victim to identity theft.
“The thieves are very sophisticated. They know how to hijack our brains. They don’t need to hijack our devices; they can hijack our humanity,” Valesquez said.
That is why she wants people to know that they should not be embarrassed.
“If you become a victim, you believed a lie. That’s all. That’s all the accountability on your part. Someone lied to you, and you believed it,” she said.
Fite said he remains focused on using his hacker skills to make tech better and safer for humans.
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