Somewhere today, someone will call a corporate help desk and say they are locked out. The voice will sound right. The employee ID will match. The caller will know the answer to security questions. Within minutes, they may have access to systems worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Increasingly, the person on that call will not be who they claim to be.
Documents and credentials have long served as proof that you are you. Driver’s licenses were created to show you can drive and Social Security numbers were created to track wages. Neither was built to prove who you are and what you should have access to. Yet, over time these credentials became stand-ins for proving identity and online verification has exacerbated the problem. Data breaches hand attackers the right facts, and generative AI can now supply a matching face and voice. Someone can know what you know, look like you and sound like you, and still be someone else.
