Alia Bhatt is the latest to fall prey to deepfakes: 12 ways to stay safe online

The issue of deepfakes has once again brought to the fore privacy and security concerns for millions of social media users. Ever since the emergence of such AI-manipulated videos, all those who share short-form video content are advised to exercise caution. Here are some tips that may help one to protect their videos and images from falling into the trap of miscreants who create deepfakes.

Keep a check on what you share online: To keep yourself safe, we advise you to limit the amount of personal videos and images that you share on social media or other public platforms. If sharing is absolutely necessary, then be mindful enough to employ the highest privacy settings to keep the media private. This is because deepfake tools mine raw data and your content may be susceptible to such attacks if not kept private.

Strong passwords: The most fundamental, yet the best solution in almost all scenarios. Yes, keeping a strong password for all your online accounts can block any unauthorised access to your images and videos. Aside from a strong password, we also recommend updating passwords at regular intervals.

Antivirus software: This is one of the most trusted ways to keep your data and online accounts safe. We highly recommend the use of reputable antivirus software on your devices to protect against malware attacks. Cybercriminals use malware to gather raw data which could be later used to create deepfake videos.

Use digital fingerprints or watermarks: When it comes to images and videos, using digital fingerprints or watermarks can be a great way to safeguard your content. Traditionally, this method has been used to protect against theft as these let users know who the original owner of the content is. Besides, they also make it difficult for someone to create synthetic content from them.

Metadata management: Another great way to keep your content safe is ensuring that the metadata embedded in them is accurate and up-to-date. These include information such as date of creation, location, and copyright ownership details. These details may come in handy in proving ownership.

Awareness and education: The first step towards fighting the menace of deepfakes is to educate oneself and others around. Spread awareness about how it is made and the challenges it can pose. Just ensure that you refer to quality news resources.

Keep online accounts safe: Ensure that you have enabled two-factor authentication on all your social media accounts. This could ensure that your account is safe from any kind of unauthorised use.

For businesses: We advise developing multi-step authentication processes. Also, frequently change processes to counteract how hackers use deepfakes. Businesses need to stay updated with tools and technologies to combat sophisticated deepfake attacks.

Spot deepfakes in the simplest ways: 

Verify content source: Along with best cybersecurity practices, it is important to verify the content that one may encounter. We advise you to double-check the source of the images or videos. When in doubt, perform image searches to track the original content.

Inconsistencies in video: Look for jerky movements, shifts in lighting or skin tone, strange blinking or lack of blinking, poor lip sync, and digital artifacts.

Look at facial features: The biggest giveaway could be the faces in the purported videos. Pay attention to unusual features, especially the eyes. If the eyes look unnatural or the facial movements seem a bit odd, then in all likelihood, it could be a deepfake.

Some notable signs: There could be inconsistencies in the skin and body parts. One could spot shadows around the eyes, glare on sunglasses if any, unusual blinking patterns, unrealistic movements of the mouth, lip colouration, incompatible facial hair, etc.

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