Law school valedictorian seeks to combat Deepfake scams

Tran Le Trong Van, valedictorian of Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and Law in 2022, spent months researching and finding useful methods to deal with the risks of Deepfake technology.

With the topic "Improving students' capacity to respond to risks from Deepfake technology (a technique that uses artificial intelligence to create fake, untrue images, sounds and videos)", Tran Le Trong Van won first prize at the scientific conference "Student security in the digital transformation period", organized by the Center for Youth Science and Technology Development (Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union), People's Security University, Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology.

Thủ khoa trường luật tìm ra cách ứng phó với rủi ro từ công nghệ Deepfake - Ảnh 1. — *Trong Van presented on the topic "Improving students' capacity to respond to risks from Deepfake technology"*

In June 2023, from the information he read, Van realized that there were many cases of fraud from calls using Deepfake technology, so he began to research this topic. During the research process, Van had difficulty finding documents because in Vietnam there were not many in-depth articles on this topic. Therefore, the male student had to read articles and documents from other countries.

In his presentation, the male student summarized many skills for students to cope with the risks from Deepfake technology. These include using strong, different passwords for each social network account and changing them regularly; only downloading applications from reputable developers; connecting to a secure and password-protected wifi network; not downloading or opening suspicious attachments, nor clicking on strange or unknown links...

According to Van, students also need to limit sharing sensitive personal information such as: images, videos, sounds, voices of themselves or their relatives with strangers or untrusted people.

Thủ khoa trường luật tìm ra cách ứng phó với rủi ro từ công nghệ Deepfake - Ảnh 2. — *Trong Van hopes to develop his paper into a scientific research topic.*

“Check the apps’ access to your device’s camera, microphone, storage, or location. Only share personal content with authorized people and set your posts to private. Don’t reveal information on your profile, page, or biography. Don’t participate in chats or receive calls with sensitive or unusual content,” Van said.

Van hopes that this topic will contribute to raising students' awareness and capacity in dealing with the risks of Deepfake technology. At the same time, it will promote research on controlling and maximizing the benefits of this technology in the future. The male student also developed the paper into a scientific research topic. It is expected that in March 2024, he will report on the harvest of the topic at the Faculty of Law, University of Economics and Law, Ho Chi Minh City.

“Students should not blindly trust any information without checking its source, authenticity and reliability. A suggested set of criteria to evaluate the authenticity of information could be: Who is the author or spokesperson of the information? Where and when was the information published? Are there any other sources cited and what are they? Are there any omissions, errors or bias? What is the purpose of the information and who is it aimed at?”, Trong Van shared.

While still a student at Phan Thanh Gian High School (Ben Tre province), Trong Van won many awards such as: second prize for excellent students at the provincial level in informatics, the title of "3 Good Students" at the provincial level in the 2019-2020 school year, third prize for excellent students at the provincial level in math...

Thủ khoa trường luật tìm ra cách ứng phó với rủi ro từ công nghệ Deepfake - Ảnh 4. — *Trong Van is a guy who always brings positive energy and is cheerful.*

Master Nguyen The Duc Tam, working at the Faculty of Law, University of Economics and Law, Ho Chi Minh City, said: "I am impressed by Trong Van's seriousness and diligence. Whether it is studying, scientific research or movement activities, Trong Van always tries his best, meticulous in every detail. At the same time, he is always proactive and creative to be able to complete it in the best way."

Master Duc Tam added: "I highly appreciate Trong Van for his ability to balance many different areas of work and manage time effectively. Moreover, despite having a busy schedule, Trong Van is always cheerful, sociable, and spreads a positive spirit to everyone around him. At the same time, he always listens to everyone's feedback to improve himself."

Thanhnien.vn