As we have been analyzing in previous articles, fraud techniques continue to evolve at an alarming rate, becoming increasingly sophisticated and frequent. Social engineering, combined with methods such as phishing, continue to target the most vulnerable point of any organization: the human factor.
While we are generally becoming more cautious about clicking on unknown links or verifying the sender of an email or SMS requesting a transfer, scams have not ceased to pose a risk to the general population. Cybercriminals, in addition to using psychological principles such as authority, reciprocity, scarcity and urgency to manipulate their victims, are now relying on artificial intelligence to make their scams even more believable.
While we are used to becoming alert and suspicious when we receive an email from an unknown address or a call from a stranger, what if the call came from someone we know?
Trust is a key factor for an attack to be successful and for the victim to follow the attacker’s instructions. This is where voice hacking comes in, a technique that exploits the victim’s emotions and plays on fear and urgency, reducing their ability to think clearly.
What is voice hacking?
Voice hacking is the cloning of a familiar voice using AI tools capable of recreating a person’s voice with just a few seconds of recording. Once an AI model is trained with this audio, messages can be generated with the same tone and pitch as the original voice.
Although this technology has positive applications, such as helping people with speech problems or preserving voices of late actors, it is also being used by scammers to trick their victims into believing they are talking to someone they trust.
How can they capture our voice?
Cloning a voice with AI is extremely simple, as currently, there are a number of free and open source models that can be used without the need for advanced knowledge in AI or audio engineering.
Cybercriminals collect audio recordings through various sources, such as phone calls, voicemails, videos on social networks, interviews or podcasts. They then employ advanced AI algorithms to train speech synthesis models and generate accurate imitations. With this material, they can make fraudulent calls or even access voice authentication systems.
It is enough to collect a few seconds of audio from the victim, train an AI model and then simply type in a text for the cloned voice to reproduce it with a high degree of realism. This threat is especially worrying for public figures, such as company executives or people with a high presence on social networks and digital platforms.
How to prevent voice hacking?
To prevent voice hacking, it is essential to adopt proactive security measures. A key strategy is to limit the exposure of our voice online, avoiding sharing recordings on social networks or other platforms, setting profile privacy settings to restrict access to multimedia content, and reducing participation in phone surveys or unverified calls.
It is also advisable to establish verification passwords, defining keywords or security questions with family and close friends to authenticate important calls, in addition to making people in our circle aware of the importance of validating the caller’s identity before acting.
Another measure to take into account is the use of multifactor authentication (MFA), which helps to reinforce the security of our accounts with mechanisms such as one-time passwords (OTP) sent to secure devices, and prioritizing biometric authentication in combination with other factors, such as fingerprint or facial recognition.
On the other hand, public or high-profile figures, such as CEOs and executives, should be especially cautious, as their voice is often widely available in interviews, conferences or podcasts, making them attractive targets for cybercriminals. To avoid internal fraud, it is recommended that executives establish strict protocols on the issuance of financial orders or key decisions, avoiding that a simple voice call is sufficient to authorize money transfers or other critical actions.
Finally, it is important to raise fraud awareness by training family members and employees on the risks of voice cloning and how to identify potential scam attempts, as well as being skeptical of urgent requests for money or sensitive information made over the phone.
Differences between vishing and voice hacking
Vishing or voice phishing is a scam that does not require advanced technology, but rather manipulation skills. In this sort of fraud, the attacker impersonates a trusted entity, such as a bank or a company, in order to obtain confidential information from the victim.
A common example is receiving a call from someone claiming to be from the bank and warning about a suspicious transaction. To “protect” the account, they request confirmation of the card number or a verification code.
So the difference is that voice hacking uses artificial intelligence to clone voices and make frauds more believable, while vishing relies on psychological manipulation techniques to trick people into acting impulsively.
Both methods can be mixed, as a cybercriminal could use voice hacking to enhance a vishing attack by making their call appear to come from, for example, your trusted account manager. This makes the scams harder to detect and increases the risk of fraud.
Conclusion
Digital threats continue to evolve and voice hacking is a clear example of this, but with a combination of awareness, technology and best practices, it is possible to significantly reduce the risk. The key to protection lies in prevention, awareness and implementation of appropriate security measures, as well as adopting a skeptical attitude to unexpected calls and strengthening authentication mechanisms.
Protecting our voice identity should be considered as important as safeguarding our passwords or financial information. Caution and constant vigilance are essential to avoid falling into these new forms of digital scams.
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