Were you unable to attend Transform 2022? Check out all of the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! The rise in identity fraud has set new records in 2022. This was put in motion by fraudulent SBA loan applications totaling nearly $80 billion being approved, and the rapid rise of synthetic identity fraud. Almost 50% of Americans became victims of identity fraud between 2020 and 2022.

Artificial intelligence and the rise of deepfake technology is something cybersecurity researchers have cautioned about for years and now it's officially arrived. Cybercriminals are increasingly sharing, developing and deploying deepfake technologies to bypass biometric security protections, and in crimes including blackmail, identity theft, social engineering-based attacks and more, experts warn. Time to get those cybersecurity defenses ready. Join Threatpost for "Fortifying Your Business Against Ransomware, DDoS & Cryptojacking Attacks" a LIVE roundtable event on Wednesday, May 12 at 2:00 PM EDT for this FREE webinar sponsored by Zoho ManageEngine. A drastic uptick in deepfake technology and service offerings across the Dark Web is the first sign a new wave of fraud is just about to crash in, according to a new report from Recorded Future, which ominously predicted that deepfakes are on the rise among threat actors with an enormous range of goals and interests.

There are many amazing practical applications of AI and machine learning here now and on the horizon. But that doesn't mean every use is good or applied with good intent. The fastest growing type of financial crime in the United States is synthetic identity fraud - when a fraudster uses a combination of real and fake information to create an entirely new identity. This progressive uptick in synthetic identity fraud is likely due to multiple factors such as data breaches, dark web data access, and the competitive lending landscape. In Experian's recent Future of Fraud Forecast, they are predicting that these fraudsters will start to use fake faces for biometric verification, which is the first of five new threats they detail for 2021.

Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the number of fraud cases have continued to grow. In late June, over £16 million was lost to online shopping fraud during lockdown according to Action Fraud. From posing as government officials to online TV subscription services, fraudsters are trying every way they can to entice people for their personal details and prey on their hard-earned savings. Now, the latest weapon fraudsters are adding to their arsenal is synthetic identity fraud. Fraudsters are turning to synthetic identities to open new accounts.

Carmel Maher, Senior Product Marketing Manager for ID Analytics presented alongside Deshietha Partee-Grier, AVP Financial Crime Investigations Unit and Sandeep Dhadda, Director, Head of Advanced Analytics for CitiGroup bring the audience to a road beyond the basics of Synthetic Identity Fraud and as they delve into the depth-analysis of mitigating the risks of fraudulent activities through various anti-fraud measures. The prevalence of fraud in the marketplace has remained to be one of the most challenging threats that most businesses face nowadays. Thus, urging companies to stay ahead of the latest fraud-detection measures and technologies to prevent the proliferation of such activities. Among the most pervasive types of identity fraud is Synthetic Identity Fraud which may have accounted for 5% of uncollected debt and up to 20% of credit losses in the past years. Concurrent with the evolving sophisticated fraud tactics, it becomes more important for businesses and organizations to keep themselves abreast of the various strategies and Anti-Fraud measures that will help diminish and significantly slow down the proliferation of Synthetic Identity Fraud cases.

Witnesses before the House Financial Services Committee Task Force on Artificial Intelligence provided testimony on mitigating risks associated with the deployment of artificial intelligence ("AI") technologies. The witnesses cautioned against overreliance on AI solutions and emphasized the need to preserve digital identities in an increasingly connected digital world. NYU Steinhardt School Assistant Professor of Data Policy Anne Washington warned that AI technologies remain incapable of disambiguating large data sets, and stressed that even the most advanced AI systems will continue to require human input for the foreseeable future. Professor Washington suggested balancing AI technologies, such as customer identification and fraud detection, with a human-based dispute resolution process to (i) establish a procedure that preserves the value of human experience under circumstances where organizations are more likely to defer to the AI over the customer, and (ii) continuously gather feedback for incremental improvement of the technology. Accenture Security Managing Director Valerie Abend made AI-based cybersecurity recommendations, including (i) ensuring federal or state legislation addressing AI is "technology-neutral" and does not choose winners and losers, (ii) creating policies to protect and advance AI innovation, thus harnessing this technology to help financial institutions defend against cyber-threats, and (iii) adopting a national data privacy law to help foster an "effective [and] robust" digital identity ecosystem to exist alongside AI technology.