Jaipur: Facing the challenge of an emerging cyber fraud hub in the Mewat area of the state, the Rajasthan Government has come up with an advisory on Deepfake, its threats and countermeasures, with the focus on ensuring effective cyber hygiene and security among the public at the ground level.
The identified target audience or potential beneficiaries according to the advisory include both individuals and organizations.
The advisory was issued in consonance with the cyber security measures or actionable points determined during the Third National Conference of Chief Secretaries under the theme “Cyber Security: Emerging Challenges”.
The advisory has explained Deepfake technology as an application of AI in manipulation of videos, images, and even audios. As per the advisory, the major risks associated with Deepfake technology are the spread of misinformation, frauds, or scams and reputational damage.
Both positive and negative applications of Deepfake have been identified by the advisory. While positive applications can be seen in the generation of special effects in movies and engaging or interactive educational content, there are numerous negative uses as well.
There is a risk of financial frauds through impersonation, disinformation to manipulate public opinion, along with emotional and financial extortion through non-consensual explicit content.
The concerned advisory also highlighted certain preventive steps which can be referred to by both individuals and organizations for avoiding mishaps caused by Deepfake technology and its negative applications.
Individuals and organizations have been advised to do cross-referencing for every information and exercise extreme caution in case of personal information.
Certain measures like Multi-Factor Authentication or MFA, strong privacy settings, verification protocols, and consistent security audits can aid the public in combating the ill effects of Deepfake technology.
On an individual level, the public has been advised to be cautious while sharing any information in the digital space. It is advised to assess the authenticity of the source of concerned information.
The concerned advisory also provided certain preventive measures meant specifically for organizations.
The advisory said that organizations deal in large amounts of company and customer data, it is advised to make use of Multi-Factor Authentication or MFA to ensure secure use, storage, and transfer of data.
Organizations have been advised to undertake security audits at regular intervals along with usage of encrypted modes of communication.
The advisory also suggests formulation of crisis management plans in case of any mishap. Notably, Rajasthan’s Mewat region is emerging as a cyber fraud hub in the country and has become a challenge for the state police, who is running “Operation Anti-Virus” in the area.
As per reports the Deeg district is seeing an alarming rise in cyber fraud cases and 90% of these cases involve morphing victims’ images with explicit videos.
