Page 160 - Cyber Defense eMagazine July 2024

celebrities, politicians, or other public figures, that can spread misinformation, damage reputations, or
incite conflicts.

In these instances, expertise becomes crucial in swiftly identifying and mitigating the threat. Deepening
your understanding of the imposters and deploying effective countermeasures is imperative for
maintaining a company’s integrity in the digital landscape. Recognizing fraud and responding effectively
to deceitful accounts is critical in shielding executives from harm and protecting the organization from
potential reputational and financial repercussions.

As technology evolves and improves, detecting deepfakes will become increasingly difficult. But there is
hope on the horizon, as AI can also be used for good, to build up defensive postures, and assist in
flagging scams before they become problems. Keep reading to learn more about outsmarting the
scammers.

Unmasked: Recognizing scammers to stop being victimized

The best way for executives to avoid becoming victims is to detect threats before they cause financial or
data loss and damage. The incident mentioned earlier underscores just how simple and easy it is for
attackers to set up fake profiles on multiple channels, including LinkedIn, Telegram, WhatsApp, and
social media platforms, to establish legitimacy before contacting unsuspecting employees or partners to
carry out their scam.

These impersonators build detailed profiles using publicly available information, including real photos of
individuals and personal details, even mimicking their unique speaking style and tone, all lending greater
legitimacy. Therefore, protecting against fake accounts and social media impersonation requires a multi-
faceted approach, beyond just enforcing unique passwords.

The first step in defending against impersonation attacks is recognizing a fraudulent profile. Through
close examination, impersonation accounts can display subtle, but telling anomalies compared to
authentic profiles. For example, profile pictures may look generic, stock-like, or unnatural; bios may be
too vague or oddly formal for social media; and often, account creation dates appear very recent. These
clues will often give away imposter profiles, which are engineered for malicious activities, like phishing
scams, installing malware, and orchestrating broader cyberattacks. Train employees to create a routine
of scrutinizing profiles for completeness and authenticity. Encourage them to explore the digital footprint
of suspicious accounts and cross-reference what they find with other public information where possible.
Genuine accounts usually have a consistent history of posts and interactions, unlike fake accounts which
may show minimal activity.

Secondly, it is much more difficult to fake your personal and professional connections. It is reasonable to
expect that an accomplished executive will have a long list of contacts, current and former associates,
customers, and friends following their profiles. So, examine followers and friends or connections lists to
identify potential imbalances in the ratio of followers to following. Fake accounts will often follow many
but conversely are only followed by a few. Such accounts may also follow a pattern of targeting high-
profile or similar accounts disproportionately. You can also use analytics tools to assess the ratio of

Cyber Defense eMagazine – July 2024 Edition 160
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