With the advancement of generative AI tools posing an existential challenge across sectors, deepfake impersonation attacks continue to grow in severity. According to GetApp’s latest research, 72% of surveyed cybersecurity professionals report that senior executives at their companies were targeted by cyberattacks in the past 18 months, with 27% of these attacks in the U.S. utilizing deepfakes or generative AI.
The scale of this threat continues to expand, with Deloitte reporting that 25.9% of organizations experienced one or more deepfake impersonation incidents targeting financial and accounting data in the past year. Perhaps what’s even more concerning is how over half of these organizations expect an increase in such attacks in the coming months.
Financial Deepfake Impersonation Leads to Massive Losses
The financial sector has faced devastating attacks. In February 2024, fraudsters executed a sophisticated deepfake impersonation attack during a Zoom meeting, using AI to clone a CFO's appearance and voice so convincingly that they induced an employee to transfer $25 million. Financial services companies now report average losses of $600,000 to deepfake fraud attempts, with Sumsub reporting a 245% surge in deepfake-related scams in 2024 alone.
The threat is particularly acute in banking, where 76% of institutions report that fraud cases and scams have become more sophisticated, with 36% citing AI-generated fraud as their top concern.
Modern Deepfake Impersonation Exploits Multiple Channels
A stark example of multi-channel attacks initiated by deepfake impersonation emerged in August 2023 when attackers targeted software company Retool. The attack began with SMS messages purportedly from IT staff about healthcare enrollment, followed by a phone call using a deepfaked voice of an actual IT team member. This social engineering breach convinced an employee to share multi-factor authentication codes, eventually leading to the compromise of several customer accounts.
According to Egress, such hybrid deepfake impersonation attacks are increasing, with Zoom-based attacks up 33.3% and phone-based attacks up 31.3% in early 2024.
Government Deepfake Impersonation Undermines Democracy
In January 2024, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin became a victim of sophisticated deepfake impersonation when a bad actor convincingly posed as a Ukrainian official during a video call. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell faced similar deceptions, with imposters using advanced AI to mimic Ukrainian President Zelensky.
The deepfake impersonation threat entered the presidential race when New Hampshire voters received AI-generated robocalls featuring President Biden's voice attempting to discourage primary voting. These incidents highlight a broader concern: according to Adobe, 80% of U.S. respondents believe that harmful deepfakes will impact future elections, while 70% say it's becoming increasingly difficult to verify whether the content they consume online is trustworthy.
Existing Security Measures Fall Short
The statistics paint a sobering picture. Business.com reports that 61% of executives haven't established protocols for addressing deepfake impersonation risks, despite half of finance professionals experiencing attempted attacks. More concerning still, 87% of financial professionals admitted they would make a payment if "called" by their CEO or CFO. At the same time, 80% of companies lack protocols for handling attacks. This preparedness gap is particularly troubling given that 70% of surveyed industry leaders believe that AI-generated attacks will significantly impact their organizations.
Combatting deepfake impersonation requires proactive and integrated solutions. Training employees and leadership to recognize suspicious interactions is an important first step, but it cannot stand alone. Advanced detection technologies capable of analyzing audio and video in real-time are critical.
Securing Trust in Communications
Reality Defender is at the forefront of the fight against deepfake impersonations, offering comprehensive solutions designed to secure critical communication channels and protect enterprises and governments alike from the growing threat of synthetic media.
By leveraging our award-winning multimodal detection models, businesses, digital platforms, and organizations can detect and respond to deepfake threats in real time. Our solutions are designed to integrate seamlessly with existing communication platforms, providing enterprise-grade scalability and resilience.
To explore how Reality Defender’s platform-agnostic tools secure KYC workflows against the evolving threats of AI-powered breaches, schedule a conversation with our team.
