From innocent content made for entertainment or political satire, deepfakes are rapidly catching on with cybercriminals who see it as the perfect deception tool.
Fueled by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning, today’s deepfake audio and video outputs are strikingly realistic, capable of deceiving even the most tech-savvy professionals. Deloitte predicts that these advancements could enable fraud losses to reach $40 billion in the United States by 2027, up from $12.3 billion in 2023.
As deepfake attacks become more convincing and more common, let’s examine how they’re reshaping the corporate threat landscape.
How Deepfakes Entered the Corporate Arena
Deepfakes first gained traction in the world of entertainment and politics. But during those days, the technology was new, and it was easy to tell when a clip was fake. All of that changed around 2023, when breakthroughs in generative AI models made it possible to produce near-perfect replicas of real people.
Naturally, cybercriminals picked this up as a brand new social engineering weapon. Deepfakes are now a valuable tool for impersonating trusted figures, manipulating employees, and conducting large-scale financial fraud.
Even state-sponsored actors are using it. North Korea is particularly notorious for using fake identities and deepfake videos to infiltrate companies and remote-work teams.
Deepfakes are also used to power advanced Business Email Compromise (BEC) and vendor fraud schemes, where attackers send video calls or voice messages that appear to come directly from company executives. This is much more effective and believable than spoofing email domains or sending text-based phishing messages.
There are two main factors that fuel corporate targeting. First is the commodification of highly advanced AI tools that allow hyper-realistic face and voice cloning. Second is the availability of public info about corporate executives and employees, especially in large corporations that publish many interviews with the media or post regularly on social platforms.
The Anatomy of a Deepfake Attack
Successful deepfake attacks are a blend of technical sophistication and classic social engineering.
Attackers start by gathering public data about their victim. This usually comes from videos, podcasts, interviews, or other available content. This data is then fed to advanced (yet highly available) AI models to clone the user’s voice, facial appearance and mannerisms, and even speech patterns.
Delivery is crucial for success, so a combination of the right tone, channel, and timing is needed to bypass scepticism. The attack typically begins with a message or call that leverages urgency and authority – for example, a “CFO” requesting an urgent wire transfer to a new vendor.
The victim, convinced they’re communicating with a trusted superior or partner, proceeds with the action. In many cases, the interaction takes place over Zoom or Microsoft Teams, where attackers stream real-time deepfakes using facial animation software.
Who Is Being Targeted
Deepfake scams focus mainly on impersonating C-suite executives and other high-ranking corporate leaders. The reason is simple. Their word carries more weight and makes it more likely that someone will bypass normal verification procedures to appease them.
While the impersonated figures are typically executives, the victims are usually regular or mid-level employees in finance, HR, and IT/operations. These are people who can authorize payments or grant system access.
In a case from 2024, a Hong Kong employee was tricked into authorizing a $25 million transfer after a deepfake video call impersonating the company’s CFO and other executives.
The Dark Web Economy Behind Deepfakes
The Dark Web plays a key role in the rapid spread of deepfake attacks. There, criminals trade AI tools, training data, and even “Deepfake as a Service” software kit offerings that make it easy for anyone to create convincing videos or voices for fraud.
Prices for these services vary dramatically. Lower quality voice clones can be as cheap as $20, while hyper-realistic, customized video impersonations can go as high as $20,000 per minute.
With some of the services available on hacking forums, attackers can speak in real time as a cloned persona during live video calls, aiding scams over video conferencing tools and other platforms organizations use for remote communications.
Defending Against Deepfake Threats
Defending against deepfake threats starts and ends with user awareness. No matter how advanced deepfake technology gets, it shouldn’t be able to fool a well-trained employee. But to get that result, organizations must invest in regular awareness training that includes voice and video simulations.
“Trust but verify” is a solid approach. Every high-risk or unusual request should be verified, especially if it involves financial transactions or data and system access. Confirmation is a must, even if the request comes from a high-authority figure. This is the type of mindset that can come through regular awareness training.
Implementing a multi-step approval protocol also helps with reducing single points of failure. No single employee should be able to authorize large payments without independent review and confirmation.
Conclusion
The line between real and fake is blurring. Deepfake attacks are emerging as one of the most serious and complex threats to corporate security today. Organizations must start looking at social engineering as a multi-channel threat that is no longer limited to email.
Voice and video impersonations are more believable and carry a higher level of influence that employees must learn to question and verify.
Post Comment
Be the first to post comment!
