Five Deepfake Threats to Act on Now

In 2025, synthetic media crossed a threshold: voice clones slipped by contact center security measures. deepfaked identities passed KYC checks, fake candidates showed up in interviews and manipulated content began to shape public narratives.

Attackers have figured out how to weaponize AI faster than companies can adapt, and the consequences are real and immediate: financial losses, regulatory fallout, reputational damage, and a collapse in trust across core business processes. 

To help shape your 2026 response strategy, here are the five deepfake threats redefining enterprise risk—and the actions leaders must put in place now.

1. The Fake Executive Call

Voice cloning has advanced to the point where attackers can convincingly mimic an executive’s tone, cadence, accent, and verbal habits. In a single phone call, an AI-manipulated Chief Financial Officer can request a wire transfer, demand confidential data, or approve a high-risk transaction because the voice sounds real.

In Hong Kong, criminals used a cloned voice to help execute a cryptocurrency scam worth HK$145 million (approximately $ 18.5 million). Legacy voice authentication checks whether a voice matches a known user, not whether the voice itself is real.

What to do next:

1. Verify the request through a second channel, such as internal chat or in-person check.
2. Use enterprise-managed voice and messaging systems that unify employee identity.
3. Integrate deepfake detection into existing meeting and telephony platforms.
4. Record and securely store call data, timestamps, and metadata for review.
5. Coordinate across security, fraud and incident-response teams to contain the event.

2. Deepfake Candidates in Remote Interviews

Remote and hybrid work have made video interviews the default, opening a new path for attackers. We saw this firsthand when we staged a controlled Zoom interview with a fully synthetic candidate who presented as a compelling potential hire.

Synthetic candidates can infiltrate sensitive teams, harvest internal credentials, or gain access to critical data. Recruiters are trained to watch for behavioral cues, not synthetic video, and attackers now use audio-only channels and cloned voices to avoid visual scrutiny altogether.

What to do next: 

1. Integrate deepfake detection into interview workflows to flag synthetic faces or voices in real time.
2. Add liveness checks and random prompts, such as requesting spontaneous movements or asking unpredictable questions.
3. Use verified communication channels and company-managed systems.
4. Preserve recordings for review.
5. Coordinate the response across HR, Security and Compliance teams, with investigations for suspicious cases.

3. KYC Systems Fooled 

Digital Know Your Customer (KYC) verification relies on facial recognition, document upload, and liveness checks. Fraudsters can now impersonate real people or create entirely fictional identities that pass automated KYC checks. Once inside, synthetic identities can open accounts, move money, create mule networks, or bypass sanctions controls. 

For financial institutions regulated under anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing rules, even a single failure can trigger fines and long-term oversight. Traditional systems fail because they can match a face to an ID, but cannot determine whether the face itself is real.

What to do next:

1. Combine deepfake analysis with document, biometric, and facial verification
2. Require live behavioral checks to validate identity.
3. Preserve evidence for audit with detection results, timestamps, and session metadata.
4. Escalate suspicious sessions for manual review or step-up verification.
5. Train fraud and onboarding teams to recognize signs of AI manipulation.

4. Disinformation Weaponized at Speed

Deepfakes are now used to distort public discourse and manipulate narratives. Journalists have described these tactics as a direct threat to truth because synthetic content spreads faster than fact-checking can respond.

In early 2025, AI-generated images of planes landing at a burning airport went viral with misleading claims about airstrikes in Beirut. Even after the creator admitted they were generated in Midjourney, the corrections reached only a fraction of the audience. Content moderation tools like Community Notes on X only work after misinformation has spread. 

What to do next:

1. Track executive names, brand terms, and product keywords across major platforms.
2. Integrate AI-detection APIs into brand monitoring systems to automatically flag suspect content.
3. Activate a rapid response protocol when manipulated content surfaces.
4. Use digital signatures to authenticate official images, videos, and press materials.Coordinate takedowns with platforms and PR teams.

5. Contact Centers Breached

Deepfake voice cloning can easily defeat contact center voice authentication systems. A Wall Street Journal reporter demonstrated how simple it is by cloning her own voice and bypassing her bank’s voice security.

As cloning tools improve, the attack surface expands. Biometric match scores confirm whether a voice matches a stored profile, not whether it is human. A cloned voice can pass with a perfect score.

What to do next:

1. Add real-time voice deepfake detection to IVR and agent systems.
2. Require step-up authentication for high-value or sensitive requests.
3. Preserve call data with tamperproof logs and timestamps for investigation.
4. Train agents to recognize voice anomalies
5. Conduct regular red team testing with cloned voices to stress-test procedures.

Your Next Move Against Deepfakes

What once seemed like an emerging risk has become a systemic one. This past year, we watched attackers clone voices with near-perfect accuracy, generate fully synthetic job candidates in minutes, bypass facial recognition systems with AI-generated faces, and push fabricated videos across social platforms faster than fact-checkers could respond.

Organizations across finance, healthcare, retail, government, and media experienced close calls, near breaches, and in many cases, real incidents. The pattern is unmistakable: deepfakes now target the everyday processes companies rely on to operate; identity, authentication, access, trust, and communication.

Download the full guide, Defending Reality: The Deepfake Threats You Cannot Afford to Ignore, and prepare your teams for what comes next.