Arup, a British engineering firm, was exposed as a $25 million victim of a deepfake fraud
The British business Arup has acknowledged that it fell victim to a deepfake scheme in Hong Kong.
A British multinational design and engineering business that created the Sydney Opera House and other iconic structures has acknowledged that it was the victim of a deepfake scheme in which one of its workers in Hong Kong had to pay fraudsters $25 million.
An official from London-based Arup informed CNN on Friday that the company reported the fraud event to Hong Kong authorities in January and verified the use of fictitious voices and pictures.
"Unfortunately, as the issue is still being looked into, we are unable to comment at this time. But we can affirm that synthetic voices and visuals were used," the representative said in an email.
"None of our internal systems were compromised, and neither were our business operations or financial stability impacted," the individual said.
The employee, a finance professional, was tricked into joining a video chat with persons he thought were the chief financial officer and other staff members during the complex fraud, but all of them turned out to be deepfake recreations, according to a February statement from Hong Kong police. At the time, the corporation and any people involved were not named by the authorities.
On May 8, 2024, a passenger boat passes by the Sydney Opera House. During the venue's construction, Arup provided structural engineering consultation.
The employee first thought he had received a phishing email from the company's UK branch, authorities said, since it required a covert transaction to be completed. After the video conversation, however, the employee set aside his reservations since other attendees had sounded and looked just like coworkers he knew.
After then, he agreed to contribute 200 million Hong Kong dollars, or around $25.6 million. The sum was transmitted in 15 transactions, according to RTHK, a public broadcaster in Hong Kong, which cited police.
"Deepfake" is often used to describe phony videos that appear very realistic and were produced using artificial intelligence (AI).
Taylor Swift's sexual AI-generated photos went viral on social media earlier this year, highlighting the potentially harmful effects of AI technology.
"Sharply rising" attacks
Arup is a leading engineering consultancy company with 18,500 workers spread across 34 locations worldwide. It was in charge of building famous structures like the Bird's Nest stadium, which hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"Our operations are vulnerable to frequent assaults, such as deepfakes, phishing schemes, invoicing fraud, and WhatsApp voice spoofing, like many other firms worldwide. Arup's global chief information officer, Rob Greig, said in the email message that "we have seen a sharp rise in the number and sophistication of these attacks in recent months."
On January 7, 2010, people go skiing on a hill in front of China's National Stadium, often referred to as the Bird's Nest, in Beijing. Arup created the building specifically for the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
Global authorities are becoming more and more worried about the malicious applications of deepfake technology and its advanced sophistication.
Arup's East Asia regional chairman, Michael Kwok, said in an internal document obtained by CNN that "we all have a duty to stay informed and alert about how to spot different techniques used by scammers." The memo also stated that "frequency and sophistication of these attacks are rapidly increasing globally."
After 26 years with Arup, Andy Lee announced his leaving on his LinkedIn profile almost a week ago. Kwok took over Andy Lee's position earlier this month.
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