Executive takeaway (because you’re busy):
Off the shelf AI is letting criminals bash out voice clones, deep fake Zoom calls and auto-generated malware quicker than you can refresh Netflix suggestions. They crowd source improvements in open forums, scale them globally in minutes and chuckle while we wait for next Tuesday’s patch cycle. Offensive AI is sprinting; defensive AI is still faffing with its shoelaces.
The gory detail of five realities we can’t ignore
AI is flipping the crime economy on its head
The Alan Turing Institute’s latest CETAS study warns we’re “transitioning towards criminal markets dominated by AI”, crooks now specialise like legit dev teams. one scrapes data, another writes code, a third slaps a voice clone UI on top. Once a tool works, it’s zipped up and flogged to the rest of the underworld at warp speed.Deepfakes are now the scammer’s Swiss army knife
Remember engineering giant Arup? A fake CFO in a very convincing video call coerced staff into wiring USD 25 million to Hong Kong. That was May 2024, not sci-fi, just last year’s headline.Detection tools are playing Whac A Mole
Intel’s FakeCatcher, Sensity’s detection hub and every “Top 10 tools for 2025” post promise 90 plus-percent accuracy, until the next model tweak sails straight past them. It’s a treadmill, not a finish line.Voice cloning is cheap, cheerful and everywhere
The FBI’s May 2025 PSA says a ten second clip is enough for criminals to spoof a believable phone in from your boss or a Cabinet minister. Lay offs and “new job” posts on LinkedIn are gift-wrapped intel for attackers.Risk management frameworks matter (but only if you actually use them)
NIST’s AI RMF, GOVERN → MAP → MEASURE → MANAGE, is sound, but frameworks stuck in SharePoint hell stop zero fraud. Embed them in procurement, incident response and pen-tests or don’t bother.
If you don’t want to carry on reading and would rather listen. Here is the new podcast. https://shows.acast.com/ai-ai-o-podcast/episodes/682743693e2c04fd7a86a770
So what? Practical pointers to keep you vigilant
| Attack surface | Defensive play that actually works |
|---|---|
| Client comms | Add video call verification. If “the CFO” pops up begging for a rush payment on extra LED tiles, phone their PA on the old-school landline before moving a penny. |
| Content handling | Mandate secure upload portals and file type whitelists for hybrid events. One poisoned keynote.mp4 will ruin your day. |
| Crew awareness | Before doors open, give the team BBC Bitesize’s cheat sheet on spotting AI images odd ears, too many teeth, funky jewelry. Basic? Yes. Effective? Also yes. BBC |
| Tooling | Keep a live watch list of deepfake detectors and rotate them; don’t sign a five-year monogamy clause. |
| Lobbying | Lean on trade bodies to adopt the NIST RMF language so we stop inventing 37 different policy wheels. |
But it’s not all doom and gloom—we also look at the AI tools and preemptive cyber solutions fighting back:
- Hive AI and its deepfake detection API
- Truecaller’s AI Call Scanner for voice scam detection
- Image analysis tools that spot giveaways like extra fingers, weird shadows, or dodgy text overlays.
- Morphisec Automated Moving Target Defense, stop ransomware earlier at app level and by changing and moving system resources, such as runtime memory, create a constantly shifting attack surface. This makes it harder for attackers to find and exploit vulnerabilities. Morphisec – AMTD
Key Takeaways
- AI is transforming scams—phishing, deepfakes, romance frauds—into near-perfect crimes.
- Education and vigilance are crucial to stay safe.
- New AI detection tools are promising, but the digital arms race is only just beginning.
Crystal-ball time
Give it 24 months and we’ll see “malware as a video service”: deepfake keynote videos that sideload RATs the second they buffer. Defenders will finally wedge multi-modal AI into EDR stacks and claw back some parity, if the budget-holders wake up first.
Listen to the new podcast where we cover much more and what new solutions and services can help. Season , episode 1- AI AI O podcast – AI Enabled Cyber Crime – deep dive
Sources
Alan Turing Institute, AI and Serious Online Crime (2025). CETASCETAS
CFO Dive, “Scammers siphon $25M from engineering firm Arup via AI deepfake ‘CFO’” (17 May 2024). CFO DiveFinancial Times
Intel, FakeCatcher real-time deepfake detection (2024). Intel
AIM Research, “5 AI DeepFake Detector Tools for 2024” (2024). AIM Research
Sensity AI, Deepfake Detection Hub (2025). Sensity
FBI PSA on AI voice cloning (15 May 2025). AxiosReutersBleepingComputer
NIST, AI Risk Management Framework (2023) & Playbook. NISTNIST
BBC Bitesize, “How to spot AI-generated images” (2023). BBC