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Young bright mind detects deepfakes in a heartbeat
At 19, Gregory Tarr’s new techniques for identifying deepfakes won him BT Young Scientist of the Year 2021. In our latest video in the Young Bright Minds series, Tarr explains how he’s overcome some of the challenges of spotting this AI-created media at scale.
A deepfake is any media (usually video) with one person’s voice or face mapped onto another’s using AI-based software. They’re often meant to be funny or satirical, like placing Donald Trump in criminal underworld TV series Breaking Bad or critiquing Facebook’s data collection seemingly from the top.
But some deepfakes are less obvious. They can spread fake news or otherwise fool people into thinking someone said or did something they didn’t.
Tarr radically improved existing processes for detecting deepfakes. “I was able to speed things up ten times.”
The deepfake detection method is fascinating. Tarr explains: “Photoplethysmography means graphing the light of the blood. Every time your face receives a pulse of blood, green and red hues change slightly. You can track that over time in a video.”
“Many companies trying to detect these deepfakes have built models that work in lab environments,” says Tarr. “But because of the sheer size of the problem – hundreds of millions of videos – having the infrastructure and the computing power is a harder problem.”
Tarr is founder and CEO of Inferex. His business wants to work with companies’ deepfake detection models and deploy them across thousands of computers.
Tarr warns that technological solutions will only go so far in fighting fakes – we need to change how we think about what we see and read. “The only solution is that people wisen up. We need to be more aware that things we’re seeing or reading may or may not be true.”
For more videos about Young Bright Minds, subscribe to Tomorrow Unlocked on YouTube or follow us on Instagram.
Young Nigerians’ movie Clicks with Kaspersky
Nigerian teen collective The Critics is gaining global attention with self-taught filmmaking. The Click, explores a fictional cybercrime adventure.
Nigerian teen collective The Critics is gaining global attention with self-taught filmmaking. The Click, explores a fictional cybercrime adventure.
A collective of Nigerian teenagers called The Critics is making waves across the world. They make their groundbreaking movies using recycled smartphones and things they’ve learned in online tutorials.
Their recent short Z: THE BEGINNING went viral, catching global film heavyweight attention with its creativity and homemade special effects.
Tomorrow Unlocked is among the first brands to have commissioned The Critics to make a new film, The Click, written and directed by Godwin Gaza Josiah.
Mel, played by Esther Ukata, lives with her sick mother and works a repetitive job, all the while investigating her father’s mysterious disappearance.
When an old acquaintance offers Mel a lucrative job hacking elite cybercrime gang The Click, she’s reluctant to get involved. But when her mother’s condition worsens, stress gets the better of Mel and she takes the job.
Remembering skills she learned from her father, Mel succeeds in breaking through the gang’s defenses. But they won’t take this lying down. Will Mel find out what happened to her father?
For more videos on inspiring tech innovation, subscribe to Tomorrow Unlocked on YouTube or follow us on Instagram.
Down with Doxing: What to do to stop it
Your data matters - simple tips to keep it sage from a new wave of cybercriminial
Your data matters - simple tips to keep it sage from a new wave of cybercriminial
Doxing. Have you heard of it? If not, here’s why you might want to get up to date and some simple tips to keep protected. Essential personal data protection reading.
The accessibility of information today is one of our most empowering freedoms. But it can also fuel malicious personal attacks, known as doxing or doxxing. We’re about to take you through what doxing is, how criminals do it and how to prevent it.
Doxing is maliciously revealing personal information online, for example, posting an anonymous blogger’s real name or address. Doxers aim to punish, intimidate or humiliate their target by finding out sensitive information and using it against them, like selling your credit card details or threatening to burgle your home.
The never-ending black hole of personal information that is the internet means anyone with the time, motivation and interest can weaponize your personal data. And doxing is a growing problem.
These are the most common ways doxers grab data to expose someone.
Tracking usernames
When someone uses one username across multiple platforms, doxers can follow the trail.
Phishing
Phishing scams are fake emails luring victims to click through to a malicious site where attackers may steal sensitive information.
Stalking social media
Geotagging your photos? Sharing your work location? Doxers can use this to build up a picture of your life and even to deduce the answers to your account security questions.
Yes. Doxing can have catastrophic consequences.
In 2015, hackers forced entry to dating site for people in committed relationships, Ashley Madison, stealing 32 million users’ data. They demanded payment to return the records but didn’t get it, so published all the data online, causing professional and personal harm, and probably a divorce or two. And then in 2020 Ashley Madison’s attackers came back for more.
Doxing knows no bounds. There are no clear good or bad sides. After an anonymous UK-based security researcher saved the world from a powerful cyberattack, the media outed his real identity and address, leaving him open to a revenge attack from the cybercrime group he went out to stop. Marcus Hutchins’ story is one of a kind.
Recent research shows more of our data is being sold to organizations and criminals. Cybercriminals could use almost all of it for doxing or cyberbullying.
Credit cards and banking log-ins are the most in-demand. They’re used for extortion, phishing schemes and straight-up money theft. Meanwhile, doxxers use personal account access to cause reputational harm. How do you stop it happening to you? This anti-doxing checklist has everything you need to stay safe.
Kaspersky, in collaboration with endtab.org, has just released a free doxing training course. You’ll learn about the dangers of dox attacks, how to protect against them and what to do if you’re a victim.
NFTs explained: Why pay $170,000 for digital art?
Intro to cryptoart and non-fungible tokens (NFTS)
Intro to cryptoart and non-fungible tokens (NFTS)
A non-fungible token (NFT) of digital kitten art sold for 170,000 US dollars. These tokens could change how we buy, sell and own digital media. What are they, and could they build a new creative economy? To start, check out the video above from CNBC!
Most of us can make a GIF, take a picture or record a clip, but what if you could sell those and other digital media for hundreds of thousands of dollars? With the rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), pictures, short clips of comedians, GIFs and every other form of digital art is now being tokenized and sold just like a physical painting.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a digital certificate of ownership of a piece of digital information that can be bought and sold. It works the same way as cryptocurrency: Secure transactions made between two parties recorded permanently through blockchain. The difference is, with bitcoin – a popular cryptocurrency using blockchain – you can trade one coin for the other and it has the same value, but NFTs are one-of-a-kind. Each NFT is unique and can have a different value.
You can make NFTs of almost anything digital, but the big news is they’re starting to be used to buy and sell digital art, known as cryptoart.
Uniqueness has always been central to the art market. Digital art is hard to sell, and for buyers, hard to ‘own’ because of the potential for an infinite number of copies. NFTs could solve that problem.
For creators, NFTs are super trendy and therefore add to your enigmatic status, and they have a handy sell-on feature. If you sell a GIF using NFTs, you get a percentage every time the NFT is sold to a new buyer. Imagine Van Gogh selling a painting, then getting a slice of every resale, forever.
And if you’re a buyer, you have a concrete claim of owning a piece of digital art. And speaking of buying, you might want to see this.
The best way to understand the NFT market explosion is to see some pieces that have fetched crazy sums. Brace yourself.
This 50-second video by Grimes sold for almost $390,000.
Watch the video here.
This video by Beeple sold for $6.6 million.
Watch the video here.
Many financial experts have warned that this could be an investment bubble that, if it bursts, could mean big losses.
And while NFTs are making the digital art world fairer, they come with a warning. The sale of a crypto art piece can use the same amount of energy in one transaction as an art studio uses in two years.
If you’re an aspiring or established artist or content creator, no promises, but this could be big for you. First, prepare your work ready, whether it’s a GIF, picture or video. Then, when you’re happy with it, start on NIfty Gateway. On Nifty Gateway, you can apply to create a project for them to sell.
Will you get into the world of cryptoart? Share your favorite pieces with us on Facebook and Twitter.
Unravelling the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic cyberattack mystery
Our video picks: Olympic Games – tech success or failure?
As the Olympic torch begins its journey to Tokyo 2021’s opening ceremony, we ask, is the Olympic Games a chance for technology to shine or a data breach waiting to happen?
In ancient Greece, the Olympics began some 3,000 years ago as a sporting event to honour the god Zeus. As the iconic torch sets off on its journey to the Tokyo 2021 opening ceremony, we ask if the Olympic Games is where new technological standards are set, or a breeding ground for emerging cyber threats.
Tech successes and failures from Olympic history range from robotics to autonomous vehicles, to merciless malware that tried to start a cyberwar.
Good Morning America shows us how new drones from Intel will change medal ceremonies forever.
With the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games just around the corner, here’s a snapshot of the incredible technology the organizers will use to make the event smoother and more enjoyable for everyone.
If successful, the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics’ cyberattack would have left a geopolitical disaster in its wake. hacker: Hunter Olympic Destroyer is a three-part series exploring the mysterious motives behind the attackers, why it’s one of the most deceptive cyberattacks in history and the ‘extraordinarily brilliant’ response that stopped it in its tracks. Watch the full 2018 Olympic cyberattack series.
The Olympic Games is one of the biggest stages on Earth to champion technology in all forms. But with more than sports at stake if things go wrong – think, mountains of personal data and even competitors’ health – how can businesses and organizations make sure this event and its tech is safe for all to enjoy?
What kids searched for online during lockdown
How to talk tech and keep your kids safe online
How to talk tech and keep your kids safe online
Children around the world, like all of us, had an unusual time in 2020. Instead of adventuring in the great outdoors, they were making do with what they had – exploring the far reaches of the internet. But what exactly were they doing and how can parents protect them?
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels
A new study from Kaspersky Safe Kids shows that during the winter of this pandemic, despite restrictions, kids entertained themselves online, with YouTube (21 percent) and gaming (15 percent) being the most popular activities. The top topic on YouTube? Video games. Kids went mad for them. 37 percent searched for video game clips, including channels of game streamers who play different games and channels for specific games like Minecraft.
Another new trend was TikTok, which has exploded to 800 million monthly active users in more than 150 countries.
It’s official – more of our kids’ lives are being lived online. Agreed, the web and its many applications are great for keeping children entertained, but how do you protect them from threats?
“Get home before the dark.” “Look left and right before crossing the street.” “Don’t talk to strangers.” Classic parental lines from the pre-internet era. But it’s easy to forget that what’s inside the home may be just as dangerous as outside it in today’s connected world.
The internet and mobiles bring us entertainment, education, and excitement – but also cyberthreats, like strangers wanting to befriend your child online. The study shows although 84 percent of parents are worried about their children’s online safety, on average, they only spend a total of 46 minutes talking to them about online security throughout their entire childhood. So how can you keep your children safe online? #TimeToTalkOffline
Getty Images
Before you can talk confidently about web safety with your kids, you first need to know more than how to throw a sheep on Facebook or avoid using ‘reply all’ on an office email joke thread. Educate yourself now about topics like fake news, cyberbullying or online grooming. Teach yourself how to keep your data safe online and then show your children how to do it. Let them know that what goes on the web stays on the web, even if it gets deleted from their profiles. And the most important part: make them talk to you the moment they sense something could be wrong – whether someone has taken their videos, or a stranger is asking them to share private photos.
Photo by August de Richelieu from Pexels
Without being pushy or overbearing, try talking to your child about what they search for and what they enjoy. That way, you can keep a closer eye on those particular sites. Need a hand? Kaspersky Safe Kids can provide you with regular reports about how they spend their time online. The app analyzes your children’s search activity and manages screen time without encroaching on their personal space.
Getty Images
No matter what we tell our kids, we have to lead by example: if you’re a smoker, no matter how often you tell your children that smoking is bad for them, they are twice as likely to begin smoking. We can all talk a lot; in the end, our kids will copy our behavior and not just what we preach. Be careful of how you use the Internet, don’t take your mobile with you when going to the toilet, and if your kids allow you to befriend them on social media (lucky you,) don’t judge them when they post jokes or complain about their homework – because they are well aware of how to keep you from seeing their posts, without you knowing – but teach them well and make them understand the consequences.
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You can’t expect your kids to trust you if you check their browser history every time they use the computer (and they probably know how to delete it anyway 😉 Otherwise they’ll start getting sneaky and hide things from you. If your child thinks they’re doing something wrong and might get in trouble if you find out, then when they are in real trouble, let’s say a stranger online tells them to “brush your hair and take your picture,” then they may not talk to you.
Read more about how kids coped with COVID-hit winter holidays on SecureList.
Meeting the organization fighting to kill fake news
Human or animation - which is which?
This Unreal Engine tool lets you animate realistic digital humans
This Unreal Engine tool lets you animate realistic digital humans
What data secrets can 185 hard drives tell you?
A live Q&A; with Félix Aimé and Marco Preuss
A live Q&A; with Félix Aimé and Marco Preuss
Join presenter Rainer Bock to explore the great privacy challenges we face today, and what we can do to protect ourselves.
Join the privacy debate
Online privacy is more important than ever right now. Given the digital world’s meteoric expansion, the ever-evolving threat landscape and murky data privacy court cases, this is the perfect time to brush up on what we’re up against and how to stay safe.
Rainer Bock meets cybersecurity experts from Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team, Marco Preuss and Félix Aimé. They discuss the critical stalkerware threat, programs that fight unwanted data sharing, and a bold privacy experiment involving 185 used hard drives, USB sticks and notepads.
Want a career in cyber? Meet the women owning it
These are cybersecurity's trailblazing women to follow
These are cybersecurity's trailblazing women to follow
This International Women’s Day, we celebrate the makers, creators and doers working to close tech’s gender gap. Sure, the industry has a long way to go, but these women’s success shows we’re making progress. Essential reading if you’re looking at a career in the industry.
Are you thinking about a career in cybersecurity but put off by the lack of women in the industry? There’s good news: the tides are changing. What was a male-dominated industry is transforming – slowly but surely. We’re celebrating the women who’ve made it.
Diversity benefits our teams, yet encouraging more women to join is a constant challenge in the tech industry. Now is the time for change. Kaspersky’s Women in Tech report found 57 percent agree there are now more women in IT and tech roles than two years ago. Plus, one in two believe that remote working has improved gender equality. This might seem like slow progress, but it’s a positive sign for championing women in cybersecurity. And these trailblazers are leading the way.
Follow Theresa: @TrackerPayton
How many people can say that? Formerly of the White House, Theresa is CEO of Fortalice – a cybersecurity firm specializing in protecting small-to-medium-sized businesses and a team member on the CBS reality TV show Hunted. Here’s her view on what it’s like being a woman working in cybersecurity.
Follow Katie: @k8em0
Katie’s been programming computers since she was eight. Since then, she’s helped Microsoft develop its Bug Bounty program, developed Hack the Pentagon for the US Department of Defence and founded a cybersecurity agency, Luta Security. So what’s the secret behind her success?
Follow Eva: @evacide
Eva set up the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a collection of technologists and activists to defend free speech online and fight illegal surveillance. Now she’s a leading voice in the fight against stalkerware. Meet Eva in Tomorrow Unlocked series Defenders of Digital.
Follow Magda: @m49D4ch3lly
Magda is a top international cybersecurity influencer. Global leader of the year at the Women in IT Awards 2017, Founder of Woman in Cyber group, and works with numerous non-profit focus groups. If that wasn’t enough, she leads her own company, Responsible Cyber. But what makes her tick?
Follow Shira: @Shirastweet
Cybersecurity expert, influencer and font of cyber knowledge – Shira Rubinoff is President of SecureMySocial. Here she breaks down the importance of cybersecurity training.
Follow Tyler: @TylerCohenWood
Tyler is a globally-recognized cyber-authority. She’s spent time developing cybersecurity initiatives for the White House, Department of Defence and the Defense Intelligence Agency (as their Cyber Deputy Chief.) Here she talks about the cyber-apocalypse.
Follow Jane: @JaneFrankland
Security entrepreneur and author of In Security: Why a Failure to Attract and Retain Women in Cybersecurity is Making Us All Less Safe – Jane Frankland is empowering more women to become cybersecurity leaders in company boardrooms worldwide. Here she talks about Industry 4.0.
Follow Anne-Marie: @aimafidon
Tech speaker and author, Anne-Marie, CEO of training organization Stemettes, is leading the wave by encouraging girls and young women to pursue cyber careers. Read an interview with Anne-Marie in Secure Futures by Kaspersky magazine.
This is just a tiny snapshot of the incredible women helping to close tech’s gender gap globally. Here are a few more women to get on your radar.
Lesley Carhart: Principal Threat Analyst at Dragos, with two decades of threat hunting experience. She was named “Top Woman in Cybersecurity” in 2017.
Follow Lesley: @hacks4pancakes
Noushin Shabab: Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky who’s helping to connect, support and inspire women in security across Australia through the Australian Women in Security Network.
Follow Noushin: @NoushinShbb
Parisa Tabriz: The self-styled “Security Princess” running Google’s security testing labs.
Follow Parisa: @laparisa
And not forgetting…
Rebecca Base: ‘A maverick and a catalyst for women in cybersecurity,’ widely respected as a security technology pioneer, known for her valued role as a mentor to young people and young companies in cyber. Rebecca is no longer with us, but her legacy remains.
Looking for more inspiration on how women are overcoming gender biases in tech and cybersecurity? Explore Kaspersky’s Empower Women project.
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