By Chris Baker | Contributor
Former FBI operative and cybersecurity skilled Eric O’Neill, writer of the upcoming ebook Spies, Lies, and Cybercrime: Cybersecurity Tactics to Outsmart Hackers and Disarm Scammers.
On the rise of deepfake tech and the way mother and father can defend their youngsters, Eric explains:
- AI-generated specific content material is extensively traded on the Dark Web, however the true risk has moved into the sunshine. These ‘nudify’ apps are being marketed on mainstream platforms like Instagram, TikTookay, and Reddit—proper the place youngsters are. Today’s teenagers don’t have to navigate the Dark Web; with just a few faucets on their telephone, they will generate and share specific deepfakes immediately. That makes the risk larger, quicker, and tougher to include.
- It takes seconds. A single photograph—say, from a college yearbook or social put up—will be fed into one in every of dozens of freely obtainable apps to supply a hyper-realistic specific picture. The tech, initially developed for creative enhancement or leisure, has been hijacked for exploitation. And when the instruments are this accessible, the road between a sick prank and actual abuse disappears.
- Education results in company. Parents should discuss overtly with youngsters about how this tech works and the way it may be misused. Schools want insurance policies that deal with AI-generated sexual abuse like some other type of assault. And tech firms should cease dragging their ft—lower off the advert income, shut down the referral site visitors, and kill the viral progress of those apps. If you may nuke a meme for copyright, you may take down a deepfake nude of a 13-year-old.”
Tips to Avoid Online Sextortion Scams and What to Do if Victimized (Sneak peek from Chapter 11 of “Spies, Lies, and Cybercrime”)
- Set your social media profiles to personal and block or ignore folks you have no idea.
- Be suspicious of anybody that asks you to modify to video chat or different platforms.
- Don’t belief the whole lot you see. Online identities will be misleading and the picture you see might be a entice.
- Assume that each {photograph} you ship to anybody on-line might be utilized by a prison. Never ship a nude or specific {photograph} to anybody.
- Report all extortion makes an attempt. You usually are not alone in what’s an enormous crime. Parents and legislation enforcement are right here to assist.
- Preserve proof for legislation enforcement evaluation. Don’t delete info out of your telephone till legislation enforcement has a possibility to evaluation it. This proof would result in the arrest of the particular person extorting you.
- Request removing of your pictures with every of the most important search engines like google and yahoo and at http://takeitdown.ncmec.org.
ABOUT ERIC O’NEILL —
Eric O’Neill is a cybersecurity skilled, legendary FBI operative, lawyer, and founding father of The Georgetown Group and NeXasure AI which works with organizations to guard themselves in opposition to cybercriminals whose complete thefts represent the world’s third largest financial system. He is an honors graduate of Auburn University and the George Washington University School of Law. His newest ebook is Spies, Lies, and Cybercrime: Cybersecurity Tactics to Outsmart Hackers and Disarm Scammers (HarperCollins, Oct 2025).