Cybersecurity experts warn artificial intelligence is making fraud nearly impossible to detect.
“With AI powering these scams, it’s just like rocket fuel, making them faster and more sophisticated,” said Chester Wisniewski, a cybersecurity specialist at Sophos.
“We don’t see hardly any of these poorly crafted scams anymore.”
Wisniewski has 30 years of experience in the cybersecurity industry and says scammers are targeting their victims at every angle via social media platforms, text messages, emails, voice cloning, and phone calls.
However, it’s the ease with which criminals are stealing personal information that experts say is alarming.
“They are just breaking in and stealing databases. Hundreds of millions of records are stolen every week from hacked websites where many of us have shopped or done business with,” Wisniewski told Consumer Matters.
When it comes to protecting your personal information, Wisniewski says a healthy paranoia goes a long way. He recommends avoiding anyone who reaches out to you unsolicited, asking for personal credentials.
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“If you got a phone call from your bank, be suspicious. Hang up and call the bank back, verify it’s your bank. That needs to be the case with everything right now,” said Wisniewski. “Anytime something involves a financial transaction or a password, you need to have initiated the transaction; never allow someone else to initiate it.”
Guarding your email password is also a critical line of defence. Wisniewski says it’s the digital skeleton key to your accounts. He recommends using password managers to generate complex and unique passwords or passkeys to protect your identity.
Passkeys confirm your identity using facial recognition or a fingerprint to gain access to your accounts.
“I think you do have to give up on the idea your information is not going to be stolen. Unfortunately, we have to share our information with many organizations and a large percentage of them get broken into,” said Wisniewski.
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