John has a tip about how he uses Marked and Obsidian for converting Markdown to rich text, Jonathan argues that the Apple ecosystem should be less iPhone-centric, plus the usual Links, App Debuts, the latest happenings in the Club MacStories+ Discord community, a recap of MacStories articles, and a preview of next week’s episodes of...
Up Next on MacStories Podcasts
Next week on AppStories, Federico and John continue their annual wishlists with a look at macOS and visionOS. Next week onMagic Rays of Light, Sigmund and Devon share the updates and enhancements they hope to see come to Apple TV at WWDC next month and recap Apple Original series Franklin....
Previously, On MacStories
Stories What If…? – An Immersive Story Will Debut May 30th Tadoº Announces New Range of Smart Heating Products Supporting Matter Over Thread QuickTune: A Music Remote App for Mac with Tiger Vibes I Turned the New 13” iPad Pro Into a MacPad and Portable Gaming Display Apple Rolls out Support for Paris Transit Passes...
Voice Clones Have Crossed the Uncanny Valley [Sponsor]
Now, don’t get offended, but – you aren’t as good at clocking deepfakes as you think you are.
And it’s not just you–nobody’s that good at it. Not your mom, or your boss, or anyone in your IT department.
To make matters worse, you probably think you can spot a fake. After all, you see weird AI-generated videos of celebrities on social media and they give you that uncanny valley tingle. But it’s a different ballgame when all you’ve got to go on is a voice.
In real life, people only catch voice clones about 50% of the time. You might as well flip a coin.
And that makes us extremely vulnerable to attacks.
In the “classic” voice clone scam, the caller is after an immediate payout (“Hi it’s me, your boss. Wire a bunch of company money to this account ASAP”). Then there are the more complex social engineering attacks, where a phone call is just the entryway to break into a company’s systems and steal data or plant malware (that’s what happened in the MGM attack, albeit without the use of AI).
As more and more hackers use voice cloning in social engineering attacks, deepfakes are becoming such a hot-button issue that it’s hard to tell the fear-mongering (for instance, it definitely takes more than three seconds of audio to clone a voice) from the actual risk.
To disentangle the true risks from the exaggerations, we need to answer some basic questions:
- How hard is it to deepfake someone’s voice?
- How do hackers use voice clones to attack companies?
- And how do we guard ourselves against this… attack of the clones?
Like a lot of modern technologies, deepfake attacks actually exploit some deep-seated fears. Fears like, “your boss is mad at you.” These anxieties have been used by social engineers since the dawn of the scam, and voice clones add a shiny new boost to their tactics.
But the good news is that we can be trained to look past those fears and recognize a suspicious phone call–even if the voice sounds just like someone we trust.
If you want to learn more about our findings, read our piece on the Kolide blog. It’s a frank and thorough exploration of what we should be worried about when it comes to audio deepfakes.**
Our thanks to Kolide for sponsoring MacStories this week.
In This Issue
John explores what the new iPad Pro hardware means for future Apple products, Jonathan wonders what the reaction to Apple’s Crush! video means for upcoming AI features in iOS 18, plus the usual Links, App Debuts, the latest happenings in the Club MacStories+ Discord community, a recap of MacStories articles, and a preview of next...
AppStories Scheduling and the Image Inserter for Obsidian Plugin
AppStories+ and AppStories will be published together next week on Monday, May 13th, later in the day than usual to coincide with a story Federico is working on. It’s undoubtedly not what you’re expecting, but I think you’ll enjoy it. Also, there’s a new version of the Club-only Image Inserter for Obsidian plugin that fixes...
Previously, On MacStories
Stories Apple Apologizes for Crush! Video Stu Maschwitz on the Filming of Apple’s Let Loose Event Apple Music Adds Shazam Radio Spins Charts and a New Industry Program Quinn Nelson of Snazzy Labs Explains the iPad Pro’s Tandem OLED Screen and the M4 Chip Marvel Studios and ILM Immersive Announce an Upcoming Vision Pro Project...
Up Next on MacStories Podcasts
Next week on AppStories, Federico and John examine iPadOS and consider what Apple needs to do for the OS to live up to the the iPad’s new hardware. Next week onMagic Rays of Light, Sigmund and Devon discuss Apple’s evolving theatrical film strategy, highlight the debut of The Big Cigar, and recap Palm Royale....
In This Issue
Federico shares a shortcut for combining images of different sizes, Jonathan tries the Nothing Ear (2) earbuds, John explains what it will take for next week’s Apple event to get him excited, an interview with AltStore’s Riley Testut, plus the usual Links, App Debuts, the latest happenings in the Club MacStories+ Discord community, a recap...