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Malwarebytes
Categories: Technology
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On August 15, the city of San Francisco launched an entirely new fight against the world of deepfake porn—it sued the websites that make the abusive material so easy to create.
“Deepfakes,” as they’re often called, are fake images and videos that utilize artificial intelligence to swap the face of one person onto the body of another. The technology went viral in the late 2010s, as independent film editors would swap the actors of one film for another—replacing, say, Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future with Tom Holland.
But very soon into the technology’s debut, it began being used to create pornographic images of actresses, celebrities, and, more recently, everyday high schoolers and college students. Similar to the threat of “revenge porn,” in which abusive exes extort their past partners with the potential release of sexually explicit photos and videos, “deepfake porn” is sometimes used to tarnish someone’s reputation or to embarrass them amongst friends and family.
But deepfake porn is slightly different from the traditional understanding of “revenge porn” in that it can be created without any real relationship to the victim. Entire groups of strangers can take the image of one person and put it onto the body of a sex worker, or an adult film star, or another person who was filmed having sex or posing nude.
The technology to create deepfake porn is more accessible than ever, and it’s led to a global crisis for teenage girls.
In October of 2023, a reported group of more than 30 girls at a high school in New Jersey had their likenesses used by classmates to make sexually explicit and pornographic deepfakes. In March of this year, two teenage boys were arrested in Miami, Florida for allegedly creating deepfake nudes of male and female classmates who were between the ages of 12 and 13. And at the start of September, this month, the BBC reported that police in South Korea were investigating deepfake pornography rings at two major universities.
While individual schools and local police departments in the United States are tackling deepfake porn harassment as it arises—with suspensions, expulsions, and arrests—the process is slow and reactive.
Which is partly why San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu and his team took aim at not the individuals who create and spread deepfake porn, but at the websites that make it so easy to do so.
Today, on the Lock and Code podcast with host David Ruiz, we speak with San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu about his team’s lawsuit against 16 deepfake porn websites, the city’s history in protecting Californians, and the severity of abuse that these websites offer as a paid service.
“At least one of these websites specifically promotes the non-consensual nature of this. I’ll just quote: ‘Imagine wasting time taking her out on dates when you can just use website X to get her nudes.’”
Tune in today.
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Show notes and credits:
Intro Music: “Spellbound” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Outro Music: “Good God” by Wowa (unminus.com)
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Previous episodes
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117 - San Francisco’s fight against deepfake porn, with City Attorney David Chiu Sun, 22 Sep 2024 - 0h
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116 - What the arrest of Telegram's CEO means, with Eva Galperin Sun, 08 Sep 2024 - 0h
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115 - Move over malware: Why one teen is more worried about AI (re-air) Sun, 25 Aug 2024 - 0h
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114 - AI girlfriends want to know all about you. So might ChatGPT Sun, 11 Aug 2024 - 0h
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113 - SIEM is not storage, with Jess Dodson Sun, 28 Jul 2024 - 0h
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112 - How an AI “artist” stole a woman’s face, with Ali Diamond Sun, 14 Jul 2024 - 0h
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111 - Busted for book club? Why cops want to see what you’re reading, with Sarah Lamdan Sun, 30 Jun 2024 - 0h
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110 - (Almost) everything you always wanted to know about cybersecurity, but were too afraid to ask, with Tjitske de Vries Sun, 16 Jun 2024 - 0h
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109 - 800 arrests, 40 tons of drugs, and one backdoor, or what a phone startup gave the FBI, with Joseph Cox Sun, 02 Jun 2024 - 0h
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108 - Your vacation, reservations, and online dates, now chosen by AI Sun, 19 May 2024 - 0h
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107 - "No social media 'til 16," and other fixes for a teen mental health crisis, with Dr. Jean Twenge Sun, 05 May 2024 - 0h
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106 - Picking fights and gaining rights, with Justin Brookman Sun, 21 Apr 2024 - 0h
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105 - Porn panic imperils privacy online, with Alec Muffett (re-air) Sun, 07 Apr 2024 - 0h
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104 - Securing your home network is long, tiresome, and entirely worth it, with Carey Parker Sun, 24 Mar 2024 - 0h
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103 - Going viral shouldn't lead to bomb threats, with Leigh Honeywell Sun, 10 Mar 2024 - 0h
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102 - How to make a fake ID online, with Joseph Cox Sun, 25 Feb 2024 - 0h
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101 - If only you had to worry about malware, with Jason Haddix Sun, 11 Feb 2024 - 0h
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100 - Bruce Schneier predicts a future of AI-powered mass spying Sun, 28 Jan 2024 - 0h
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99 - A true tale of virtual kidnapping Sun, 14 Jan 2024 - 0h
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98 - DNA data deserves better, with Suzanne Bernstein Sun, 31 Dec 2023 - 0h
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97 - Meet the entirely legal, iPhone-crashing device: the Flipper Zero Sun, 17 Dec 2023 - 0h
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96 - Why a ransomware gang tattled on its victim, with Allan Liska Sun, 03 Dec 2023 - 0h
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95 - Defeating Little Brother requires a new outlook on privacy Sun, 05 Nov 2023 - 0h
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94 - MGM attack is too late a wake-up call for businesses, says James Fair Sun, 22 Oct 2023 - 0h
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93 - AI sneak attacks, location spying, and definitely not malware, or, what one teenager fears online Sun, 08 Oct 2023 - 0h
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92 - What does a car need to know about your sex life? Sun, 24 Sep 2023 - 0h
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91 - Re-air: What teenagers face growing up online Sun, 10 Sep 2023 - 0h
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90 - "An influx of Elons," a hospital visit, and magic men: Becky Holmes shares more romance scams Sun, 27 Aug 2023 - 0h
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89 - A new type of "freedom," or, tracking children with AirTags, with Heather Kelly Sun, 13 Aug 2023 - 0h
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88 - How Apple fixed what Microsoft hasn't, with Thomas Reed Sun, 30 Jul 2023 - 0h
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87 - Spy vs. spy: Exploring the LetMeSpy hack, with maia arson crimew Sun, 16 Jul 2023 - 0h
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86 - Of sharks, surveillance, and spied-on emails: This is Section 702, with Matthew Guariglia Sun, 02 Jul 2023 - 0h
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85 - Why businesses need a disinformation defense plan, with Lisa Kaplan: Lock and Code S04E13 Sun, 18 Jun 2023 - 0h
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84 - Trusting AI not to lie: The cost of truth Sun, 04 Jun 2023 - 0h
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83 - Identity crisis: How an anti-porn crusade could jam the Internet, featuring Alec Muffett Sun, 21 May 2023 - 0h
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82 - The rise of "Franken-ransomware," with Allan Liska Sun, 07 May 2023 - 0h
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81 - Removing the human: When should AI be used in emotional crisis? Sun, 23 Apr 2023 - 0h
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80 - How the cops buy a "God view" of your location data, with Bennett Cyphers Sun, 09 Apr 2023 - 0h
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79 - Solving the password’s hardest problem with passkeys, featuring Anna Pobletts Sun, 26 Mar 2023 - 0h
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78 - "Brad Pitt," a still body, ketchup, and a knife, or the best trick ever played on a romance scammer, with Becky Holmes Sun, 12 Mar 2023 - 0h
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77 - Fighting censorship online, or, encryption’s latest surprise use-case, with Mallory Knodel Sun, 26 Feb 2023 - 0h
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76 - What is AI ”good” at (and what the heck is it, actually), with Josh Saxe Sun, 12 Feb 2023 - 0h
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75 - A private moment, caught by a Roomba, ended up on Facebook. Eileen Guo explains how Sun, 29 Jan 2023 - 0h
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74 - Fighting tech’s gender gap with TracketPacer Sun, 15 Jan 2023 - 0h
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73 - Why does technology no longer excite? Sat, 31 Dec 2022 - 0h
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72 - Chasing cryptocurrency through cyberspace, with Brian Carter Sun, 18 Dec 2022 - 0h
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71 - Security advisories are falling short. Here’s why, with Dustin Childs Sun, 04 Dec 2022 - 0h
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70 - Threat hunting: How MDR secures your business Sun, 20 Nov 2022 - 0h
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69 - How student surveillance fails everyone Sun, 06 Nov 2022 - 0h
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68 - A gym heist in London goes cyber Sun, 23 Oct 2022 - 0h