Minzifra, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Roskomnadzor, will collaborate on addressing the regulatory issues surrounding dipfaces, according to a source familiar with the agenda of the Government Commission meeting on the prevention of offenses in February. The departments are required to report on their progress to the commission by November 1, 2024. A representative from the Ministry of Cyphra confirmed that they have received the meeting’s protocol.
The problem of diphs has become increasingly relevant since the start of 2024, with a rise in cases involving the use of audio dipheists in the fraudulent FAKE Boss scheme, where scammers make calls using voting substitution. According to F.A.C.C.T, the attackers usually create a fake account of a manager on platforms like Telegram and demand money transfers to specified accounts from employees.
The issue of regulating dipfaces was raised not only at the meeting of the right to committee, but also during the State Duma’s plenary meeting in January 2024. Alexander Khinshtein, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, suggested that Russia should hold individuals accountable for the unauthorized use of someone else’s voice and images. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin also instructed the mincifers in December 2023 to address the identification of fakes created using artificial intelligence by March 19, 2024.
Currently, the identification of diphs primarily relies on the attentiveness and expertise of forensic experts who look for signs of fakes, such as Muadu, trembling, speech delays, audio distortion, and histogram anomalies. It is anticipated that automated systems will be used in the future for identifying such manipulations.
Market participants suggest that “watermarks” could be a possible safeguard against the unlawful use of dipfaces, although they believe that it would only be cost-effective if made mandatory.
Currently, the use of dipfaces is not specifically regulated by law. However, crimes involving their use can be addressed under existing fraud, deceit, and protection of honor and dignity laws. The main challenge lies in bringing the attackers to justice due to the potential for anonymity.