Bloomberg recounted how a book saved a Ferrari executive from fraud

According to the agency, the top manager initially began receiving messages on Messenger from a fake account. But its owner insisted that he was actually Vigny and was simply writing from a new number, as his question was highly confidential and required utmost secrecy.

“Hey, have you heard about the big acquisition we’re planning? I might need your help,” Bloomberg quoted one of the reports as saying.

“Please be prepared to sign a confidentiality agreement, which our lawyer will send you shortly. The Italian market regulator and the Milan Stock Exchange have already been informed. Please be prepared and exercise extreme caution.”

The recipient of the messages doubted the authenticity of the information, after which the phone rang. The voice was reproduced with meticulous precision, right down to Vigna’s southern Italian accent. And only the “mechanical notes” prevented the top manager from being confused.

“I’m sorry, Benedetto, but I need to identify you,” he admitted sincerely and asked the key question of the situation: what was the name of the book that Vigny had recommended to a colleague a few days before the conversation.

There was no response. The conversation ended. Ferrari launched an internal investigation. By the way: the book was called “Decalogue of Complexity: Act, Learn and Adapt in a World of Continuous Formation” by Alberto Felice De Toni.

Fraud against large companies’ staff through the use of management deepfakes is a growing practice around the world. According to Rachel Toback, director of cybersecurity training company SocialProof Security, “this year we have seen an increase in the number of criminals trying to clone voices using artificial intelligence.”

Such cases have become more frequent in Russia, which is why the head of the Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs, Yaroslav Nilov, announced his intention to submit to the State Duma a bill on punishments for illegal use of an image, voice, as well as biometric data of citizens.

Previously, RB also published advice from a Kaspersky Lab expert on how to recognize a deepfake.