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Criminals are using AI to create fake documents to trick businesses

Date:
Thu, 29 May 2025 14:08:55 +0000

Description:
Forged documents are a growing threat to businesses worldwide - here's what
you need to know about the tech used to stop them.

FULL STORY
======================================================================

We may not think much about it, but businesses need to rely on digital and
physical documents every day. Decisions, purchases, and deals worth millions
hinge on information in official documents being trustworthy. In the new 
world that AI has brought about, forged or altered documents are becoming not
only very convincing, but also available to anyone with basic AI tools . 

The news cycle has been replete with cases of AI being used to fake crucial
documents like IDs  and these only scratch the surface. AI has given
fraudsters the tools for fabricating invoices, tax forms, investment
contracts, risk assessments, financial audits, and procurement documents 
among others. 

A report on AI-assisted fraud found that digital document forgeries increased
244% between 2023 and 2024 making it one of the fastest growing categories of
business-related fraud going into 2025. For businesses operating into the 
next decade, the possibility that they cannot trust their own internal
documents is becoming a problem that is impossible to ignore.

Faked documents do real harm to businesses

While cases of significant fraud will be rare given the layers of internal
security and regulations that prevent decision making being centered on one
person or one document, the real damage this will do will be to trust. 
Without a reliable and quick way to authenticate documents businesses may 
have to add hours into processes of checking and re-verifying documents, even
when they are perfectly legitimate. 

At best, this will add a significant inefficiency to many businesses, wasting
time and effort  but at worst, it can grind operations almost to a standstill 
 costing businesses the critical advantage of time against their competitors. 

This creates a need to counter this by creating systems that distinguish
authentic documents from tampered ones. How tech restores trust 

Responding to this critical problem, new technologies focused on document
verification have developed quickly. Principally, the solutions that exist
fall into four main categories blockchain-based solutions, AI detection,
Identity Verification Technology (IDVT), and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
Heres what you need to know about them: 

 Blockchain 

While Blockchain started as a means for facilitating cryptocurrencies, its
since become a legitimate platform for business applications , where the
immutability of blockchains present significant security benefits when
integrated into business software and processes. 

Blockchain authentication solutions create tamper-proof documents by matching
them with cryptographic hashes - meaning that a document can always be 
checked against its hash. Fundamentally, blockchains decentralized nature
makes it nearly impossible for bad actors to change internal records stored 
on the platform, providing a reassurance that once a document is placed on 
the blockchain, you will always be able to verify it against the authentic
version. 

Since document hashing takes place in your own environment and hashes cannot
be reverse engineered to rebuild the document, this method allows you to 
avoid sending any sensitive data to third parties. 

There are some legitimate concerns about the blockchain's environmental costs
given the vast amounts of computing and energy needed to maintain it, 
although different blockchains offer different advantages in this regard. 

 AI-detection 

AI anomaly detection identifies metadata, formatting, and other criteria for
mismatches. This is certainly the most straightforward option  as AIs have
become surprisingly adept at spotting the output of other AI. That said, 
while it can be a cost-effective solution, there is no way of guaranteeing 
its accuracy given AIs notorious hallucinations. Given this, it can be an
effective 'first layer against forgery but should not be relied upon
exclusively. 

 IDVT 

IDVT uses AI to scan metadata and security protocols to detect fakes. This
scanning procedure can cross-reference the protocols with trusted databases 
to prevent using forged credentials in business transactions. The process
essentially provides a checkpoint for all your data  documents are flagged
immediately if it doesnt match the protocols stored on an organizations
database. 

IDVT is sometimes hampered by overreliance on database accuracy. 
Organizations typically require a lot of resources in terms of 
infrastructure, personnel, and access to reliable data sources to set it up
making it prohibitively expensive for small and medium companies. It's also
prone to human error- if an employee sets up protocols incorrectly, the
solution becomes near useless. 

 PKI 

PKI relies on shareable digital certificates that authenticate a document's
origin and integrity.  Using the issuers public key to check the certificate,
both first parties and third parties can check its authenticity. It has the
advantage of being intuitive to set up, but has gained an unfortunate
reputation of being somewhat insecure  if bad actors are able to obtain the
keys and/or modify them, they can certify modified documents as authentic.
Regulation needs to be the answer to systemic document forgery 

The truth is, AI forgery is not a business-by-business level problem, but a
systemic one that will need higher level regulation to address. Eventually, 
it will become critical for governments to impose baseline metadata standards
and mandatory verification technology that can make vital public 
documentation verifiable by everyone. 

We cannot afford to regard AI forgeries as a distant problem  the threat of
serious harm being caused by an AI-doctored document grows daily. Operating a
business or running a government where we cannot trust the documents we 
depend on is an impossible task. Embracing these technologies not only allows
us to head off this potential crisis of trust, but can open new opportunities
to make the organizations we rely on more transparent. 

 This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel
where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry
today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not
necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in
contributing find out more here:
https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/criminals-are-using-ai-to-create-fake-documents-
to-trick-businesses

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