Former CyberArk CEO and current chairman Udi Mokady spoke at DEF CON 31 in August. Except he didn’t.

What at first glance looked like Mokady was actually CyberArk security research group manager Gal Zror, who demonstrated a new process that uses existing generative AI tools to impersonate anyone’s face and voice—in real time. During his talk at DEF CON, Zror also impersonated conference founder Jeff Moss live on stage, telling the audience, “I’m Jeff Moss, founder of DEF CON. I hope you enjoyed this talk because right after it, DEF CON is officially canceled.”

Zror’s technique, “DEep Fake CONversation for VIDEO and Audio in Real-Time” (DEFCON VIDEO-ART), could be replicated by anyone with patience, a few audio and video samples, and access to a powerful graphics card or server. It’s proof that the age of the real-time deepfake is here, which means phishing attacks using similar methods can’t be far behind.

Voice cloning is already good enough to trick automatic speaker verification systems used to protect systems like bank customer service lines in some cases, and the toolkit for attackers to blow past voice authentication keeps growing. Technology for video cloning remains less advanced, but has rapidly caught up, aided by the massive amount of training data available to be scraped from social media.

Read more here.—TM

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The goodbye happy hour is probably the best part of leaving a job. But the most important part is (usually) way less fun. IT gets the time-consuming task of making sure access to all company assets is revoked while ensuring data stays secure and business continues as usual.

Simplify the offboarding process (and give yourself less to worry about) with Nudge Security’s SaaS Offboarding Checklist.

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• revoking access to all apps
• transferring ownership of tools
• removing OAuth grants
• managing sensitive data

Want to make the process even easier? Nudge Security provides an automated playbook that identifies all SaaS and cloud accounts ever created by an employee, nudges app owners to shut down accounts, revokes OAuth grants, resets passwords, and more.

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What do a North Carolina farm, an Oregon school, and a New Mexico business have in common?

They all need high-speed internet access to function, and the Biden administration is trying to make sure they get it.

The Department of Agriculture announced a $667 million cash injection for rural broadband projects on August 21. The grant and loan disbursements will go to service providers in 23 states and territories that applied for connectivity assistance as part of the sprawling 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“Keeping the people of rural America connected with reliable, high-speed internet brings new and innovative ideas to the rest of our country and creates good-paying jobs along the way,” USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. “These investments will support economic growth and prosperity for generations to come.”

The grants and loans support the Biden administration’s goal of ensuring every American has high-speed internet access by 2030, the USDA said. Mitch Landrieu, a White House infrastructure coordinator, said the funding will have practical implications, like letting children do homework at home instead of using free Wi-Fi in a McDonald’s parking lot, the Associated Press reported.

Read more here.—KG

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Discover’s new CIO Jason Strle has worn a lot of hats in his decades-long career, but he’s still an engineer at heart. “Everything I see is through the lens of how an engineer would approach a problem,” he told IT Brew.

Strle joined Discover in July after working as EVP and Group CIO at Wells Fargo for nearly six years. That stint followed 12 years at JP Morgan Chase, including as CTO. At both institutions, Strle focused on consumer facing technology like banking platforms and payment platforms. Before that, Strle worked as a software developer in the Ohio area, writing Java and C++ programs as a consultant.

He credits focusing on solutions for his success.

“I’ve gotten into a flow state of solving problems and making a lot of progress in solving the problems—a lot of opportunities would open up when I was in that mental model,” Strle said. “When I was in a mental model of trying to advance my career, I went nowhere.”

The systems problem solutions approach that comes from working as a developer translates to consumer experience, Strle said. He believes that organizations need to tilt more toward customer experience and adhere to their thinking; making integration a priority is essential.

Trust is also important.

“One of the things that’s somewhat unique about financial services is, I’ve worked in some very large buildings, and they don’t have any loading docks there,” Strle said. “We’re not manufacturing anything that’s tangible. Our product is essentially trust, and confidence.”

Keep reading here.—EH

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

Today’s top IT reads.

Stat: $38,000. That’s how much WordPress is asking for 100-year domain registration plans, and how big a bet customers will be placing that WordPress still exists in 2123. (Silicon Republic)

Quote: “At certain times, you have to say, ‘Screw the stockholders.’”—Adobe co-founder John Warnock, one of the inventors of the PDF, who passed away on Aug. 19 at the age of 82 (the Wall Street Journal)

Read: Look out, ChatGPT Enterprise is here. (Ars Technica)

All offboard: When you’re juggling SaaS apps, it’s easy to miss a step in the offboarding process. Nudge Security’s free Offboarding Checklist helps make sure you check every box when employees move on. Download here.*

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