Identities under pressure: a new approach

Generative artificial intelligence, or GenAI, is good for many things. It is also a handy tool in the hands of bad actors, powering new sorts of identity attacks that are changing the ways in which individuals and institutions seek to protect themselves. As Paul Kenny, VP of customer success EMEA and APAC, Daon, points out, GenAI has lowered costs for fraudsters while making them more effective: “Not only do you have a lower barrier to entry with more people doing it [fraud], you’re also having each of them being able to scale up and create more identities. Their hope is that if you throw enough data at the net, some of it will get through.”

Is the nature of identity fraud changing? In this episode of Spotlight Podcast, our host Akshay Warikoo, Global Lead, Go-to-Market for Digital Solutions at InterFund Solutions, speaks to Kenny about the many ways in which identities are under threat at the moment, and how institutions must respond.

Among other things, they report seeing an escalation in deepfakes and injection attacks. Other AI-driven fraud includes voice cloning and fully synthetic identities. Is it already too late for some companies to respond? The answer is emphatically no: everyone requires a coherent strategy regarding fraud. However, given the pace of developments, there is a real risk of being left behind, so starting earlier rather than later is advisable. 

Still, there is good news as well: GenAI may strengthen the hand of bad actors, but it is also an active part of the strategy to combat fraud. Continuity checks are relevant here, Kenny agrees, along with verification of data.

Our panelists point out that identity/credential data silos continue to be an organizational blind spot. Weak identity proofing or a less-than-robust recovery method can also be attacked; indeed, the market shows that 70% of reported major frauds could be traced back to these factors. 

Various focus areas were isolated, including the following:

1. Digital identity and biometrics matching
2. Being live and acting in real time
3. Device and network intelligence
4. Continuous identity checks

Want to know more, including what our panelists think the future holds for the identity sphere? Listen to Spotlight Podcast!