Vytautas Kaziukonis is Surfshark’s Founder and CEO.
Deepfakes can significantly impact businesses. With the ability to convincingly replicate a person’s voice or create realistic video clips, it’s possible to impersonate decision makers within a company or even falsely portray a company engaging in harmful or unethical behavior. This risk becomes even more serious in remote work environments, where face-to-face verification is limited.
Understanding Deepfakes: What They Are And Why They Matter
A deepfake is fake media—video, image or audio—created using AI to make it look real. It can deceive others into believing that people in that media say or do things they never did or even falsely portray events, companies or situations that never actually happened.
The frequency and impact of deepfake incidents are rising at an alarming pace. My company, Surfshark, found that there were 22 recorded deepfake incidents from 2017 to 2022, doubling in 2023 with 42 deepfake incidents reported. By 2024, this increased to 150.
Furthermore, in the first quarter of 2025 alone, the incidents surpassed the total for all of 2024 by 19%, with 179 deepfake incidents reported already. That said, the numbers emphasize a concerning trend: deepfakes are increasing and becoming a huge risk globally.
How Deepfakes Threaten Businesses
Cybercriminals can exploit deepfakes in several damaging ways, including:
Authorizing Fraudulent Financial Transactions
Malicious actors can impersonate decision makers or senior executives within a company during phone calls or online meetings by replicating their voices or creating realistic videos. If successful, scammers can persuade employees to authorize financial transactions or issue sensitive directives.
Spreading Disinformation
Scammers can create deepfake videos, images or audio recordings spreading false information about a business or portraying the same business engaging in harmful or unethical behavior. This way, they can damage a business’ reputation or affect its stock value.
Penetrating The Organization
By impersonating those who carry authority in a business, bad actors can persuade employees to grant them access to the organization’s internal systems. With it, they can obtain confidential information or plant malware.
How To Safeguard A Business Against Deepfakes
In light of these trends, businesses must be prepared to defend against these attacks. Here are some key steps that can help ensure this is successful.
Evaluate employee awareness and your current business cybersecurity practices.
One of the first steps you should take as a business owner is to determine how informed your employees are about deepfakes and the risks they impose, as well as evaluate how ready your business is to combat this cybersecurity threat. You should also identify the processes that rely on media and their security.
Follow the four-eyes principle.
This concept means that at least two people must review, double-check and approve any activity before it can be done. For example, it’s beneficial to always cross-check payment requests with another colleague who has the authority to do so. By implementing it into the specific processes, you can prevent mistakes and potential fraud and increase transparency within the company.
Execute standard procedures only through official platforms/systems.
Standard procedures, such as financial transactions and approvals, HR and employee management, IT and access control, compliance and legal processes, must be carried out only through official and secure platforms and systems. If in doubt, always confirm any inquiry or request through a different communication channel, such as an official work email, Microsoft Teams, etc.
Conduct scenario-based training for employees.
Deepfakes will become harder to recognize with the naked eye over time. However, human error is still considered the most significant weakness in cybersecurity. Since people remain the front-line defense, conducting regular scenario-based deepfake training for employees is essential. This way, you can enable individuals to recognize and respond to deepfake-related threats and see if there are any weaknesses in your response plan.
Keep up to date with the latest regulatory changes and deepfake-related threats.
Deepfake technology is advancing rapidly, and governments worldwide are beginning to implement regulations for AI governance, media disclosure and more. Businesses should monitor the regulatory changes and ensure they’re integrated into their operations. It’s also essential to remain informed about the latest deepfake-related threats. Subscribing to cybersecurity newsletters, joining relevant forums and consulting with experts can keep you and your company up to date.
Have an action plan to respond to cyberattacks.
Once the information has spread, very little can be done to stop it. That’s why you should have a crisis management and response plan ready in case it happens and reevaluate the action plan regularly.
Deepfake Prevention: A Vital Part Of Business Security
It is speculated that around 8 million deepfakes will be shared in 2025, making the figures double every six months. With such rapid growth, deepfake technology is becoming a mainstream tool easily accessible to cybercriminals.
With remote work becoming the norm where face-to-face verification is limited, it’s even easier for cybercriminals to successfully exploit deepfakes at the company level. That’s why you should consider deepfake prevention a vital part of your business security and implement preventative processes to safeguard your business.
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