One signal

North Korean hackers stole more than $400 million in cryptocurrency over 18 months using a scheme called FaceStealer, CoinDesk reports, citing information attributed to the FBI. The reported tactic: fake video calls, AI deepfakes and prerecorded footage to trick targets into installing malware.

The campaign reportedly targeted at least 900 people, including cryptocurrency industry participants and open-source software maintainers. The FBI disrupted it by seizing cloud infrastructure used to host fake conferencing domains, according to the report. That makes synthetic video more than a parlour trick: here, it is described as part of a social-engineering route into malware and crypto theft.

Discuss: Should organisations treat fake video calls as a routine security threat and require stronger checks before staff install software or act on a caller’s request?

Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.