The financial sector stands at a critical juncture as deepfake technology emerges as an existential threat to institutions and their clients. The majority of C-suite executives and other leaders expect an increase in deepfake attacks targeting their organizations' financial and accounting data during the next 12 months.
Understanding who is targeted, how they're attacked, and why they're vulnerable is crucial for protecting against these sophisticated threats.
Financial Advisors and Investment Bankers
Financial advisors and investment bankers are prime targets for deepfake impersonation due to their trusted relationships with clients and access to significant financial resources. Fraudsters create deepfake videos to impersonate these professionals, leveraging their credibility to commit fraud against the general public and consumers.
This was demonstrated in a notable case from July 2023, where a Sydney financial advisor was discovered using deepfake technology to interact with clients, highlighting how this technology can be misused to breach trust in advisor-client relationships.
Third-Party Relationships
The exploitation of trusted third-party relationships represents a significant threat vector. Criminals use deepfake impersonations of both financial services employees and external entity employees to gain unauthorized access or extract funds from financial institutions.
A striking example occurred in 2020 when a deepfake business email compromise of a company director resulted in a $25 million transfer by a Hong Kong bank manager, facilitated by sophisticated social engineering that included deepfake phone calls and follow-up emails from both the bank manager and a lawyer.
Banking Consumers
Individual banking consumers face increasing risks as voice authentication systems become more vulnerable to deepfake attacks. Financial institutions utilizing voice authentication without additional security measures are particularly susceptible, as fraudsters can combine voice samples with stolen personal information to initiate unauthorized transfers and transactions.
This vulnerability was notably demonstrated when a Wall Street Journal reporter successfully cloned their own voice to bypass their bank's authentication system in April 2023.
Consumer Identity Fraud
The broader consumer landscape faces challenges from fraudsters using generative AI to create fake identification documents and establish fraudulent bank accounts. According to recent data, 46% of businesses have been targeted by identity fraud fueled by deepfakes, with synthetic identity fraud accounting for 33% of fraud events reported by U.S. businesses.
This trend is particularly concerning as underground websites now offer sophisticated fake identification capable of bypassing verification systems for as little as $15.
The Employment Vector
A growing concern is the use of deepfake technology by threat actors to bypass HR checks and gain employment within financial institutions. This method has been used for various malicious purposes, including espionage, sanctions avoidance, and gaining initial access to systems.
A particularly telling example emerged in July 2024 when a cybersecurity firm inadvertently hired a North Korean IT worker who had used a deepfake identity to obtain employment as an AI software engineer.
C-Suite Impersonation
Executive impersonation represents a critical threat to financial institutions. Deepfake videos and audio of C-suite leaders can be used to bypass traditional security measures and initiate fraudulent transactions or gain unauthorized access to sensitive information.
The Escalating Nature of Financial Deepfake Threats
The sophistication and frequency of deepfake attacks continue to rise at an alarming rate. Financial institutions face an overwhelming diversity of risks from these attacks, including market risk from false information manipulating financial markets, information security risk enabling malicious actors to infiltrate systems, and significant fraud risk through social engineering. The regulatory landscape adds another layer of complexity, as hiring or dealings with sanctioned individuals may be illegal even if their identity was concealed through deepfake technology.
Perhaps most concerning is the reputational risk these attacks pose. Disinformation campaigns leveraging deepfakes can severely damage consumer trust and institutional credibility, causing long-term damage to brand reputation that can take years to rebuild. The financial sector's reliance on public trust makes it particularly vulnerable to these reputation-damaging attacks. Professionals in finance and banking, third-party relationships, consumers, members of the workforce, and C-suite leaders are at high risk from these emerging attack vectors enabled by generative AI.
Protecting Against Deepfake Threats
As deepfake attacks continue to evolve and proliferate, financial institutions look to robust detection and prevention mechanisms to expand their cybersecurity measures. Recent data indicates that 25.9% of executives say their organizations have experienced one or more deepfake incidents over the past year, yet only 7.4% of organizations are employing new technologies to detect deepfakes. These numbers are particularly dire when experts estimate AI fraud losses will cause $40 billion in damages to US companies alone by 2027.
Reality Defender helps secure critical communication channels against deepfake impersonations, enabling institutions to interact with confidence. Our solution provides real-time detection capabilities across multiple formats, including audio, video, and images, helping financial institutions protect themselves against the growing complexity of deepfake attacks.
Our solutions work in existing workflows — ensuring seamless integration into pre-existing call center solutions or web conferencing platforms — while our dedication to security and privacy ensures regulatory compliance. With proven robustness and continuous engineering for resilience, Reality Defender offers the comprehensive protection that’s become essential in today's rapidly evolving cyberthreat landscape.
