2024-12-21T20:19:53-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150428043/arup-hong-kong-employee-targeted-in-25-million-deepfake-scam Josh Niland 2024-05-17T16:56:00-04:00 >2024-05-21T12:52:23-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/b8/b87265d6fb4ca7b226766a3fb65e5e5d.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>British multinational design and engineering company behind world-famous buildings such as the Sydney Opera House has confirmed that it was the target of a deepfake scam that led to one of its Hong Kong employees paying out $25 million to fraudsters. A spokesperson for London-based Arup told CNN on Friday that it notified Hong Kong police in January about the fraud incident, and confirmed that fake voices and images were used.</p></em><br /><br /><p>&ldquo;Our financial stability and business operations were not affected and none of our internal systems were compromised,&rdquo; an <a href="https://archinect.com/aruparchitects" target="_blank">Arup</a> spokesperson told CNN. The employee in question was apparently misled into believing they were in a video conference with senior finance staffers that were in reality deepfaked impersonations.&nbsp;</p> <p>Deepfake attacks on business have been on the rise international for several months as the technological sophistication of audi-visual mimicry continues a rapid development.&nbsp;</p> <p>Arup currently has 34 offices worldwide.</p>