You have probably seen it. Pope Francis in a designer puff jacket. It fooled millions of people. Culture writer Ryan Broderick called it the “first real mass-level AI misinformation case.”
Ten years ago, a hacker unleashed a hoax by breaking into the Associated Press Twitter account and claiming that there had been two explosions at the White House which resulted in President Obama's injury. The market reacted swiftly to this news with the S&P 500 dropping 1%. The market corrected quickly after Obama’s press secretary later clarified that these allegations were false.
Today, imagine a high-quality deepfake video of a widely recognized central banker or bank executive, such as the Fed’s Powell or JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon, saying something plausible but troubling about a major lender. Social engineering on a massive scale by a "scorched earth" bad actor like the Russian GRU or Iran.
The problem is that a digital bank run is a whole lot harder to stop than to start, because the combination of mobile-banking apps and social media is a game-changer for bank stability. The panic/contagion spreads around instantly through Direct Messaging.
The Bloomberg opinion piece ended with: "Banks are stronger since the 2008 financial crisis and the largest are much more able to meet a sudden jump in withdrawals. But that didn’t save Credit Suisse. Ultimately, a certain level of trust is critical to banks’ survival and doubt is like kryptonite. Keep your wits about you."
The best way is to step through new-school security awareness training and keep increasing your skepticism filters because the environment is getting more and more challenging. Budget Ammo. Article over at Bloomberg (Paywall)
BREAKING NEWS: March 29, 2023 -- Pope Francis Is in Hospital and Will Stay for Several Days. The Vatican said the 86-year-old pontiff was taken to a hospital in Rome, where he was being treated for a respiratory infection. Watch out for phishing attacks using this news.
