Magdalena Pasternak (University of Florida), Kevin Warren (University of Florida), Daniel Olszewski (University of Florida), Susan Nittrouer (University of Florida), Patrick Traynor (University of Florida), Kevin Butler (University of Florida)

Cochlear implants (CIs) allow deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals to use audio devices, such as phones or voice assistants. However, the advent of increasingly sophisticated synthetic audio (i.e., deepfakes) potentially threatens these users. Yet, this population's susceptibility to such attacks is unclear. In this paper, we perform the first study of the impact of audio deepfakes on CI populations. We examine the use of CI-simulated audio within deepfake detectors. Based on these results, we conduct a user study with 35 CI users and 87 hearing persons (HPs) to determine differences in how CI users perceive deepfake audio. We show that CI users can, similarly to HPs, identify text-to-speech generated deepfakes. Yet, they perform substantially worse for voice conversion deepfake generation algorithms, achieving only 67% correct audio classification. We also evaluate how detection models trained on a CI-simulated audio compare to CI users and investigate if they can effectively act as proxies for CI users. This work begins an investigation into the intersection between adversarial audio and CI users to identify and mitigate threats against this marginalized group.

View More Papers

DRAGON: Predicting Decompiled Variable Data Types with Learned Confidence...

Caleb Stewart, Rhonda Gaede, Jeffrey Kulick (University of Alabama in Huntsville)

Read More

cozy: Comparative Symbolic Execution for Binary Programs

Caleb Helbling, Graham Leach-Krouse, Sam Lasser, Greg Sullivan (Draper)

Read More

Victim-Centred Abuse Investigations and Defenses for Social Media Platforms

Zaid Hakami (Florida International University and Jazan University), Ashfaq Ali Shafin (Florida International University), Peter J. Clarke (Florida International University), Niki Pissinou (Florida International University), and Bogdan Carbunar (Florida International University)

Read More

Wallbleed: A Memory Disclosure Vulnerability in the Great Firewall...

Shencha Fan (GFW Report), Jackson Sippe (University of Colorado Boulder), Sakamoto San (Shinonome Lab), Jade Sheffey (UMass Amherst), David Fifield (None), Amir Houmansadr (UMass Amherst), Elson Wedwards (None), Eric Wustrow (University of Colorado Boulder)

Read More