Trend Micro Stops Deepfakes and AI-Based Cyberattacks for New Zealand Consumers and Enterprises

AUCKLAND, July 31, 2024 – Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global cybersecurity leader, today announced new innovations in its enterprise platform and consumer cybersecurity products focused on protecting all environments from the rapidly growing threat of AI-based attacks and fraud.

See a demo of Trend’s deepfake detection capabilities: https://youtu.be/16pwF_uzFvQ?si=lZcdCzqFXNhLQz3g

Trend research shows that cybercriminals are catching on to the explosion of enterprise AI use, resulting in a dramatic increase in AI-based tools available on the criminal underground. These tools are cheaper and more accessible than ever, enabling criminals at any skill level to more easily launch attacks at scale that mislead victims for purposes of extortion, identity theft, fraud, or misinformation.

Mick McCluney, ANZ Field CTO, Trend Micro ANZ: “New Zealand, like the rest of the world, has seen a surge in deepfakes in recent years due to the growing accessibility of AI.  For Kiwi businesses, these threats can pose significant risks to potentially undermine trust, security and brand integrity. Our latest research reveals several new deepfake tools that make it easy for cybercriminals at all skill levels to launch damaging scams, social engineering, and security bypass attempts. With our newly announced cutting-edge capabilities within the Trend Vision One platform, we are at the forefront of combating these threats for our enterprise customers, to detect deepfakes and other forms of AI fraud.”

Tim Falinski, VP, Consumer Business, Trend Micro AMEA: “While deepfakes are a new twist, they exploit the age-old tactics of scams and fraud, and are becoming increasingly effective – putting New Zealand at risk. We found that 64% of people are concerned about deepfake scams - and with good reason. From romance scams to HR recruiting scams and even grandparent scams, we’ve found that cybercriminals are pushing the limits of deception. Our new Deepfake Inspector is designed to protect Kiwis by detecting AI-powered impersonations and avoid potentially harmful or costly deceptions.”

Detecting and defeating these AI-based methods is central to better managing attack surface risk for enterprises and lowering overall online risk for consumers—71% of whom, in a recent Trend survey, viewed deepfakes negatively and believed that one of their top uses is for fraud.

Available soon in the Trend Vision One™ platform, new deepfake detection technology will use a variety of advanced methods to spot AI-generated content. This capability is also available for consumers today in Trend Micro Deepfake Inspector.

To learn more and download Trend Micro Deepfake Inspector, visit: https://www.trendmicro.com/deepfake-inspector

Going beyond techniques like image noise analysis and color detection, the platform also analyses user behavioural elements to provide a much stronger approach to detecting and stopping deepfakes. Upon detection, Trend immediately alerts enterprise security teams, enabling them to learn, educate, and take proactive measures to prevent future attacks.

Trend Micro Deepfake Inspector can help verify if a party on a live video conversation is using deepfake technology, alerting users that the person or persons with whom they are conversing may not be who they appear to be.

According to Gartner¹ analyst Dan Ayoub, “Readily available, high-quality GenAI applications are now capable of creating photo-realistic video content that can deceive or mislead an audience. Given the low barriers to entry in using these tools and their increasing sophistication, developing a methodological approach to detecting GenAI deepfake content has become necessary.”

Deepfakes pose a significant risk to modern enterprises and individuals. An undetected deepfake can lead to financial impacts, job losses, legal challenges, reputation damage, identity theft, and potential harm to mental or physical health. In a recent Trend Micro study, 36% of consumers reported experiencing a scam attempt using a deepfake. The FBI has also previously warned of deepfake technology being used in conjunction with video calls to carry out business email compromise attacks, and to fraudulently apply for remote working positions.

This technology is not only being abused to bypass human verification but also biometric security measures like facial recognition. Trend research has also revealed recent shifts indicating a growing preference for exploiting existing LLM models through innovative jailbreaking techniques rather than developing bespoke criminal AI tools.

The launch of Trend’s new solutions is part of a company-wide mission to secure customers’ AI journey. Supporting a zero trust strategy, Trend also recently released new features for Trend Vision One designed to:

• Centralise management of employees’ GenAI access and usage
• Inspect prompts to prevent data leaks and malicious injections
• Filter GenAI content to meet compliance requirements
• Defend against large language model (LLM) attacks

Trend Micro Deepfake Inspector is a free solution designed to alert users to potential deepfakes while they are on video call. Analysis takes place in real time and locally on the consumer device, ensuring users’ data and privacy are protected at all times.