Deepfake technology a cybersecurity threat that calls for multilateral co-operation

Katie Jones was a pretty, successful young woman that worked for a prestigious American think tank and was connected to many influential security professionals on LinkedIn. She also didn’t exist. The face in her profile picture was likely computer-generated and created by foreign intelligence operatives. If you want to make a fake face too, visit this website and refresh the page. You may have seen the incredibly realistic, but fake, videos of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, or former U.S. presidents Barack Obama, or Donald Trump. You can make a false video yourself with the help of an app, or for a more realistic creation, the algorithms are freely accessible online. Anyone can access the software to create "deep fakes," be they video, audio, or text. Deepfake technologies have been used to commit financial fraud, cause unrest and violence, and even to prank world leaders, including Canada’s Justin Trudeau. All of these incidents, of course, have been detectable. Now, this technology is reaching a point where experts predict synthetic content indistinguishable from authentic material will soon exist. Abby MacDonald has a Master’s in International Affairs, specializing in security and defence policy from Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. Photograph courtesy of Abby MacDonald As with all cybersecurity issues, the problem is global in nature and requires a multilateral solution. Disinformation has proven to be a formidable international challenge that no state or entity can take on individually, and democracies like Canada face the task of balancing freedom of expression and technological innovation with controlling the potentially harmful uses of this technology. Canada has not escaped the impact of disinformation and distrust, especially related to COVID-19, as the country struggles to pull out of the pandemic environment. Tensions are high, trust in leaders and institutions is low, and there is plenty of media coverage of prominent figures that could easily be weaponized. Even if a damaging video or photo could be determined to be a deep fake, information travels so quickly online that the impact of a deep fake on the eve of an election could sway the outcome before it can be determined to be false. Even then, it will be up to the audience to choose what to believe, and it’s clear that people tend to select the information needed to reinforce their existing beliefs. Deep fakes pose many potential harms, but with eroding trust in governments and other institutions and increasing election interference from foreign actors, electoral processes are growing especially vulnerable. Canada has taken on a leadership role in Principle 3 of the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, focusing on disinformation in election interference, providing an opportunity to connect with a variety of state, private sector, and civil society partners including its Principle 3 co-leads, the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) and Microsoft. While workshops have been conducted on countering disinformation in the electoral process to date, gaps remain. Deep fakes need to be addressed specifically as a particularly challenging form of disinformation, and there should be a detailed, co-ordinated plan for research efforts into digital verification tools. There are many initiatives by both governments and the private sector to develop verification technologies. For instance, Blockchain technology provides a promising potential method of authenticating online information and tracing data to its source. However, consistency in both research efforts and documentation of new findings is necessary to any of these methods being effective, which means that stakeholders need to establish common standards for better information sharing and co-operation. Canada should also propose that governments work on establishing standard procedures for responding to potentially false content and encourage public awareness of deep fake technology, particularly during election periods. It should further recommend that governments assist the private sector in working to adopt consistent tools and technologies for verifying online content and establishing a common system for clearly marking synthetic content that can be used by social media companies and news organizations. It would also be worthwhile to explore the possibility of technologies that the public could use themselves. For example, if anyone can download an app that can create a deep fake, perhaps there could be widely-available apps that could help determine the authenticity of a video. Trust in institutions is one of the most pressing issues democracies face today around the world, and Canadians increasingly believe that not only social media, but governments, contribute to their distrust of the internet. However, Canada’s democracy is strong, and the new cabinet, unveiled by Trudeau on Oct. 26, provides an opportunity to begin developing a multilateral strategy on deep fakes. To establish this approach, the ministers of Foreign Affairs, Public Safety, and Innovation, Science, and Industry could cooperate to engage both Canadian and foreign stakeholders on this topic, bringing the issue to forums such as the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, or the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence. Canada also belongs to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, positioning it well to engage with francophone African countries which have more fragile democracies that could be destabilized by this technology. Canada is especially well suited to take the lead on this challenge, and given how exponentially this technology is improving, the time to act is now. Abby MacDonald has an honours specialization in international relations from Western University, and obtained a Master’s in International Affairs, specializing in security and defence policy from Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. Her main research focus is cybersecurity policy, and she has experience working as a research assistant for the government and a Crown corporation. The Hill Times