A Georgia Tech alumnus is at the forefront of efforts to combat deepfake fraud, a growing threat in the digital age. Vijay Balasubramaniyan, who earned his Ph.D. in computer science from Georgia Tech in 2011, is the CEO and co-founder of Pindrop Security. The company focuses on detecting deception in voice calls and, more recently, in video communications.
In one recent case highlighting the risks of deepfakes, a finance worker in Hong Kong was tricked into wiring $25 million after attending a meeting with four individuals he believed were colleagues. In reality, all four were scammers using deepfake video technology.
“We used to get about one deepfake a month at the beginning of 2023,” said Balasubramaniyan. “Now we’re seeing seven deep-fake attacks per customer every day.”
Balasubramaniyan’s research as a doctoral student at Georgia Tech led to the founding of Pindrop Security in 2011. Initially serving banks by detecting fraudulent voice calls, Pindrop expanded its services during the pandemic as remote business interactions increased across industries such as healthcare and retail.
The rise of generative artificial intelligence has made it easier for bad actors to impersonate others digitally. “That has been by far the biggest tailwind for Pindrop,” Balasubramaniyan said. “Everything requires strong identification and strong security.”
Pindrop developed its first product for deepfake protection eight years ago and continues to advance its technology. The company recently secured $100 million from investors to grow its deepfake video detection capabilities. Its next offering will focus on identifying deepfakes during live video conference meetings—a measure intended to prevent incidents like the Hong Kong fraud case.
“Am I hiring the right candidate?” Balasubramaniyan asked. “Or is this person I’m interviewing not who they said they are? I was surprised, but that’s our biggest use case.”
He explained that while humans tend to look for familiar patterns and can be deceived by convincing fakes, Pindrop’s systems analyze thousands of data points per second to detect subtle differences that AI-generated voices or images may introduce.
“We’re able to pick up so many variances,” he said, “and there are so many places for these generative AI systems to make a mistake.”
The company can also identify which system was used to create fraudulent audio or video content.
“I’ve been surprised by how fast hackers have started using deepfakes in their operations,” Balasubramaniyan noted. He described how fraudsters have replaced human callers with AI bots capable of conducting realistic conversations around the clock.
Balasubramaniyan remains closely connected to Georgia Tech’s computing community and regularly consults with faculty members like Mustaque Ahamad, professor and interim chair of the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy.
“Vijay’s Ph.D. research was of the highest quality, and the Pindrop paper was published in one of the top-tier security conferences,” Ahamad said. “However, because of his work experience before coming to Georgia Tech, he also focused on the real-world relevance of his research, which led to the launch of Pindrop Security. He is a great example of impactful research that students conduct in our laboratories.”
Balasubramaniyan often hires fellow Georgia Tech alumni and supports scholarships at his alma mater alongside his wife.
“Georgia Tech is a great school for our research teams to hire from,” he said.
Both immigrants themselves, they have endowed a scholarship aimed at helping students with financial need pursue their ambitions.
“A lot of these folks, we talk to them, we tell them what we see in the market, we open our networks to them. We’re very fortunate that Georgia Tech allows us to participate in such a meaningful way.”
He credits Georgia Tech’s location outside Silicon Valley for fostering innovative thinking grounded in solid scientific principles rather than fleeting trends.
“Because we sit here in the South and Atlanta, the ideas we come up with aren’t the latest fad. They’re rooted in great science or great tech. We’re naturally great thinkers because we aren’t fad-chasers.”
