AS HEARD ON - The Jim Polito Show - WTAG 580 AM: MyHeritage Deep Fake Animation App and Microsoft Exchange Server Hack

Good morning, everybody.

I was on this morning on WTAG with Jim Polito.   We discussed the new deep nostalgia app available from MyHeritage and some of the neat and also scary aspects of it.  Then I got in a quick plug about the Microsoft Exchange Server hack that has affected 100,000 businesses.  If you are using Microsoft Exchange Server, patch it and then wipe and restore your machine from backup because this hack leaves a back door in your system. Here we go with Jim.

For more tech tips, news, and updates, visit - CraigPeterson.com.

--- 

Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: [00:00:00] Many of us have these pictures. I have pictures of family, of course, from the 1800s, and lots from then on. There are technologies now that are using a form of artificial intelligence. Right?

Good morning, everybody. A very cool new, deep fake website that will take your old pictures and animate them. Yes. Those photos you've had for all of these years, you can now put in and it will turn them into a live living person video. It's amazing, but there's some risks. That's what I talked with Jim about this morning. Also, of course, I had to bring up this Microsoft hack.

I have had it with Microsoft. So here we go with Mr. Jim Pollito.

Jim Polito: [00:00:48] There is a warning using this could come back to haunt you. Joining us now, the man with all the answers, our tech talk guru friend, Craig Peterson. Good morning.

Craig Peterson: [00:01:00] Hey, good morning, Mr. Jim. Man, I remember LaVale myself. It's a small world.

Jim Polito: [00:01:07] You know, Roger LaVale.

Craig Peterson: [00:01:10] Yes, the name is just crazy familiar. So I'm sure we've met.

Well, maybe it's another one.

Jim Polito: [00:01:16] Roger did work in high-tech weather systems, satellite communication systems, weather systems. Your paths may have crossed at one time. He traveled the world. He was a great man and a terrible loss. Thank you. I appreciate that.

So tell me, people experiencing a loss because say they never met a grandparent. This was a great idea, right? You've warned us about how they can take my face though and make a video of me saying things that I would never say, and that's pretty bad. But this was a nice heartwarming application. No?

Craig Peterson: [00:01:55] It really is. By the way,  it's too late to worry about these things. I see the next election cycle being full of these fake videos.

My heritage, you can go there. It's a very cool site. Kind of genealogy. There's so many people that are really interested in that. I have a son that is. We've traced our genealogy all the way back on both my mother and my father's side back to the seven-hundreds.

Jim Polito: [00:02:22] Wow.

Craig Peterson: [00:02:23] My mother's side, like a nine-hundreds or so. Once you hit a Royal line, it's just really easy. They really keep track.

Jim Polito: [00:02:33] Royal Peterson. Listen, be careful, because Megan Markle and Harry will be saying terrible things about you. So be careful.

Craig Peterson: [00:02:45] Well, did you ever seen that TV show Vikings?

Jim Polito: [00:02:47] Yeah.

Craig Peterson: [00:02:48] Yeah. Actually, some of those characters are my ancestors. The guy with the bad legs or whatever it is, right. I'm related to him.  It's really weird. Now I have a daughter living in Norway, so it's a small world.

Many of us have these pictures and I have pictures of family, of course, from the 1800s and lots from then on.

There are technologies now that are using a form of artificial intelligence, that don't just take your photo, and I have software that does this.

For instance, I use some software that uses artificial intelligence and the machine learning that's built into the Apple devices now in order to really clean up pictures, make them look absolutely amazing beautiful pictures from the thirties and forties.

What my heritage is doing with their deep nostalgia is taking that to a much higher level and it makes some assumptions.  If you've got a picture of someone that's maybe taken a little bit from the side or head-on it doesn't really matter.

It looks at that picture and it mirrors it because in most cases, our faces are almost the same on both sides. Right. You draw a line down the middle of your face, Jim, the right side is probably pretty similar to the left. The top of your head is probably fairly easy to figure out what's there. What you can do with this deep nostalgia app here, which's available online, is upload a photo and it will have that person come to life. Their head will move around, their eyes blink. They will smile. It does all kinds of amazing things. 

It is, as you said, it's kind of cool to think about what my grandpa or grandma or whoever have looked like back in the day. A little video.

Jim Polito: [00:04:39] So what's the problem with it.

Craig Peterson: [00:04:44] Ahh. Well, we've had this problem for a while. Most of these deep fake apps that are available are from, you guessed it. There's this big country, like a billion-plus people. You have an idea, China.

Jim Polito: [00:04:59] Oh, I know where you're going.

Craig Peterson: [00:05:05] A lot of these are Chinese-based. They are taking our photos and doing basically whatever they want with them. We've seen this problem more and more, as people have paid more attention, and that is what rights do you have to that photo or video.  Then once that photo has been modified, by an AI or something else, what rights do you have to that modified version?

This is really easy to do. You can upload your picture, you hit the animate button, you set up an account. If you leave it on that website, they have access to it and the rights to it.

We've seen many times that people there are doing malicious things with some of these pictures.  I don't even want to go into that.

Jim Polito: [00:05:55] So you basically cede ownership of that intellectual and physical property because it's a photo to them to be able to do this.

Craig Peterson: [00:06:09] Yeah, absolutely.

Here's the second problem that most people have, and that is they're not using password managers, which means they are reusing passwords.

You go there, you can set it up using, for instance, in this particular case of MyHeritage. You can use your Google login, in order to log in. They have premium services. Most people are going to be reusing their passwords. They're reusing them across sites and that's been just an absolutely huge problem. 

Then you might've decided to submit even more personal data to my heritage than just the basic information you have to give to create an account. Yeah. You see where it's going, right?

So it's never a bad idea to reduce your digital footprint. Adding this in. Giving up our photos may be good, may be bad. If you want to try it, it is kind of cool.  They say that if you delete that little video off of their website they're not going to use it.

Jim Polito: [00:07:11] Can we be sure of that?

You know who we're dealing with, a year ago they were telling us, no, we don't have any problem over here with COVID. With any kind of weird pneumonia or more people die in by all means though, everything is A-okay.

Well. It's not. Craig. I really appreciate that. I've got a longer final word coming up today. I thought that this was very, very important because you will click on it. You see other people's stuff and you're so thrilled and It's always good to hear from Craig Peterson about these things.

Craig, in other ways to hear from Craig Peterson, His Highness, his Royal Highness HRH. We're going to have to put HRH in front.

How do we hear from his Royal Highness Craig Peterson in the future?

Hey, I sent out something real quick word of warning hundred thousand or more businesses have been hacked apparently by the Chinese because they're using Microsoft exchange server.

Okay.

Craig Peterson: [00:08:18] Government agencies have been hacked by this. Retail, education, our schools have been hacked. Hospitals have been hacked. Microsoft just released a patch for it, but it does not remove what it did, which is put a back door on your machine.

They're taking everything from all of these businesses, government agencies.

If you're using Microsoft exchange, patch it up now and then restore it from a backup because they may have compromised your machine.

If you are someone who's been using Microsoft exchange, find options. I've had it with Microsoft. I have had it with them. This is the final straw. Forget it.

Anyway, Craig peterson.com. You'll find out about this and so much more. There is so many little pieces of training. I have started giving them every week. Multiples. I got big stuff comin' up. Craig peterson.com.

Jim Polito: [00:09:11] Craig, thank you so much as usual. What a great contribution you make to the show.

We'll catch up with you next week or who knows maybe before.

Craig Peterson: [00:09:22] Take care, Jim

Jim Polito: [00:09:23] Thanks. Craig Peterson. Great guy.