What is a deepfake attack?

Key takeaways_

Deepfake attacks use AI‑generated voice or video to impersonate trusted people and manipulate employees into making high‑risk decisions.
They bypass traditional security controls by exploiting trust, authority and urgency — not technical vulnerabilities.
Stopping them requires leadership buy‑in, strong verification processes and organisation‑wide awareness, not just IT tools.

AI has fundamentally changed the nature of digital trust. The same technology that enables faster decision‑making and automation is now being used maliciously. Most recently, this has been seen with deepfakes, which convincingly imitates voices, faces and identities — often using nothing more than publicly available content. While deepfakes previously seemed like something of futuristic fiction, they’re now here and likely to reach your business.

The risk is significant. Deepfake attacks are already being used to deceive finance teams into authorising payments, pressure employees into bypassing controls and impersonate senior executives in high‑stakes situations. And while the technology may be new, the impact is familiar: financial fraud, reputational damage and increased regulatory and compliance exposure when the wrong decision is made under pressure.

Crucially, this is not just an IT or cyber security problem. Deepfake attacks represent the next evolution of social engineering: one that targets people, authority and trust rather than systems alone. That’s why understanding and addressing this threat now sits firmly at board level.

In this blog, we explain what a deepfake attack is in detail – and how to stay safe in this new era of AI threat.

A deepfake attack is a form of cyber‑enabled fraud where artificial intelligence is used to create or manipulate audio, video or images to convincingly impersonate a real person (most often a senior executive, supplier or trusted contact) for malicious intent.

In simple terms:

A deepfake uses AI to replicate how someone looks or sounds
An attack occurs when that fake identity is used deliberately to deceive people for financial gain, unauthorised access or manipulation

Unlike traditional cyber attacks that target systems, deepfake attacks target human decision‑making and they’re often harder to spot.

Deepfake attacks typically succeed because they exploit trust, authority and urgency rather than technical vulnerabilities. They are more convincing because the voice or face is familiar, the request sounds plausible and the timing feels critical.

And they’re harder to detect because:

Security tools don’t flag legitimate‑looking calls or videos
Employees are conditioned to respond quickly to senior leadership
Existing controls often rely on human judgement under pressure

For businesses, this makes deepfake attacks one of the most effective and fastest‑growing forms of AI‑driven social engineering.

What makes a deepfake different from traditional phishing or impersonation?

Deepfake attacks go far beyond fake emails or spoofed phone numbers. They add a powerful layer of realism that makes them significantly harder to question or detect.

Key differences include:

Voice cloning: Attackers can replicate an executive’s voice using publicly available audio from earnings calls, videos or webinars, then use it to issue urgent payment or access requests.
Video impersonation: AI‑generated or manipulated video can be used in meetings or recordings, making it appear as though a real person is speaking in real time.
Real‑time manipulation: Some deepfake attacks happen live, allowing criminals to adapt their message, apply pressure and respond to questions, just like a real executive would.

This moves impersonation from ‘convincing enough’ to highly believable. As the tech gets more sophisticated, they’re also becoming even harder to spot.

How deepfake attacks are being used against businesses today_

Deepfake attacks are no longer experimental or rare. They are already being deployed in targeted, high‑value scenarios where attackers know a single mistake can result in a significant pay-out. While fraud has always existed, the believability and speed with which attackers can now operate has evolved drastically.

Below are the most common ways deepfake attacks are being used against organisations right now.

1. Executive impersonation and voice cloning scams_

One of the fastest‑growing uses of deepfakes is executive impersonation, particularly involving CEOs and CFOs.

Attackers use AI to clone an executive’s voice and then contact employees with urgent, authoritative requests (often relating to payments, confidential transactions or last‑minute changes).

Common scenarios include:

A fake CEO or CFO call instructing a finance team to authorise an urgent payment
Requests framed as confidential, time‑sensitive, or linked to a deal in progress
Pressure to bypass standard approval processes ‘just this once’

Here’s an example of a deepfake of our very own CEO, showing a common scenario:

These attacks rarely rely on email alone. Instead, they take place over phone calls, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams and other collaboration tools that feel informal and trusted.

2. Deepfake‑enabled Business Email Compromise (BEC)_

Deepfake attacks are also being layered onto existing Business Email Compromise (BEC) tactics, making an already successful fraud method even harder to detect.

In these cases, attackers combine legitimate‑looking emails or compromised email accounts with deepfake audio or video to reinforce authenticity. For example:

An email requests a payment or bank detail change
A follow‑up voice note or call from a “senior executive” confirms the request
The combination removes doubt and accelerates compliance

This added layer of realism turns routine fraud attempts into high‑confidence deception, particularly for finance teams already under pressure to act quickly.

3. Social engineering at scale across the organisation_

While executives are prime targets, deepfake attacks are not limited to the C‑suite. Many campaigns aim to scale social engineering across multiple roles simultaneously.

Common targets include:

Finance teams authorising payments or updating supplier details
IT administrators being persuaded to reset credentials or grant access
HR teams handling sensitive employee or payroll information
Suppliers and partners within the wider supply chain

Attackers blend AI‑generated audio, video or messages with stolen credentials, breached data or insider knowledge. This creates attacks that feel informed, legitimate and context‑aware, increasing the likelihood that someone will comply.

Why senior leaders are prime targets

Deepfake attacks are not random. They are highly targeted and senior leaders sit firmly at the centre of the threat landscape. The very qualities that make executives effective (visibility, authority and decision‑making power) also make them ideal targets for AI‑driven impersonation.

This includes:

Public visibility creates the perfect training data. Senior executives leave a large digital footprint. Earnings calls, keynote presentations, webinars, interviews, podcasts and even internal videos provide attackers with hours of high‑quality audio and visual material. For modern AI tools, this is more than enough to create convincing voice clones or video impersonations.
Authority bias reduces challenge and verification. Deepfake attacks exploit a simple reality: people don’t tend to question senior authority. When a request appears to come from the CEO or CFO, especially in urgent or confidential circumstances, employees are far more likely to act quickly rather than slow things down with verification. Attackers deliberately leverage hierarchy and trust to bypass controls that would otherwise be followed.
Hybrid and remote working make checks harder. In a hybrid or remote environment, informal communication channels are normal. Teams are used to receiving requests via phone, Teams, WhatsApp or voice notes, often without face‑to‑face confirmation. This creates ideal conditions for deepfake attacks, with fewer visual cues and less opportunity for casual verification.
Speed is prioritised over process. Senior leaders are often associated with urgency: closing deals, managing crises or moving quickly to stay competitive. Deepfake attacks exploit this pressure by framing requests as time‑critical or confidential. Under these conditions, even well‑designed processes can be overridden — not out of negligence, but out of perceived necessity.

Are traditional security controls enough?

Most organisations already have security controls in place – and yet deepfake attacks continue to succeed. That’s because these attacks don’t behave like traditional cyber threats. They don’t exploit technical weaknesses alone; they exploit people, pressure and trust which are areas where many security strategies are weakest. This is why traditional controls alone aren’t enough.

Email security can’t stop voice or video fraud. Email filtering and anti‑phishing tools are designed to detect malicious links, attachments, and spoofed domains. They are effective — but deepfake attacks increasingly bypass email altogether.
MFA doesn’t help when the attack targets human judgement. Multi‑factor authentication is critical for protecting accounts, but it doesn’t prevent an employee from being socially engineered into doing the wrong thing. If a finance team member is persuaded to authorise a payment, or an IT admin is convinced to reset access for a ‘trusted executive’, MFA is irrelevant. The attacker doesn’t need to break in — they’re being let in.
Urgency overrides policy. Most organisations have policies for payment approvals, verification and access changes. The challenge is not their existence, but their enforcement under pressure. In these moments, well‑meaning employees override process to ‘get things done’, believing they are acting in the organisation’s best interest. That’s where policies quietly fail.
Awareness hasn’t caught up with AI‑driven threats. Many staff are still trained to spot traditional phishing — poor grammar, suspicious links or unfamiliar senders. Deepfake attacks don’t follow those patterns, so employees may not even realise they’re facing a threat.

Due to the limitations of traditional tools, deepfake attacks expose a gap. A new approach is needed to protect your business.

How to stop your business falling victim to a deepfake attack_

There is no single control that solves deepfake attacks. Organisations that are most resilient treat this as a business risk, not a purely technical one: addressing behaviour, decision‑making and governance alongside security controls. The starting point is a clear, practical framework that brings people, process and technology together.

1. Build deepfake awareness across the business_

Deepfake attacks succeed when people don’t realise they’re possible or feel empowered to challenge them. You need to:

Educate staff on how AI‑driven social engineering works in practice
Show what voice cloning and executive impersonation look and sound like
Move beyond phishing awareness to include modern AI‑enabled threats

Just as importantly, leaders must normalise verification. Explicitly tell employees they can ask questions or challenge requests that don’t feel right, regardless of seniority. A strong challenge culture is one of the most effective controls against deepfake attacks.

2. Introduce verification for high‑risk actions_

Deepfake attacks are most damaging when they intersect with high‑value decisions. That’s where verification matters most. This includes:

Payment requests, especially urgent or confidential ones
Changes to bank details or supplier information
Access, credential or privilege changes within IT systems

Verification should always be independent of the original communication channel (e.g. a request via Teams should be verified via phone), consistent (even under pressure) and supported by leadership.

3. Reduce your organisation’s AI attack surface_

Most businesses don’t realise how much material already exists that could be used to train a deepfake. A proactive approach includes:

Understanding what executive audio and video is publicly available
Reviewing exposure across websites, social platforms, webinars, events and media
Considering what internal content may also be accessible or shared externally

This isn’t about removing visibility entirely, but about being conscious of how AI tools can reuse that content and factoring it into risk planning.

4. Prepare for when (not if) an incident happens_

Deepfake attacks are designed to create confusion and urgency. When something feels ‘off’, teams need to know exactly what to do. Preparation should include:

Clear incident response plans that include deepfake and impersonation scenarios
Defined escalation paths across finance, IT, legal and leadership
Agreement in advance on who makes decisions when trust is in question

The organisations that recover fastest are the ones that have rehearsed the moment when trust breaks down.

Deepfake attacks demand leadership attention_

Deepfake attacks represent a fundamental shift in how cyber risk shows up in the business. They don’t target firewalls or endpoints; they target people, authority and trust. And as AI tools become more accessible, these attacks are becoming faster to execute, harder to detect and easier to scale.

For senior leaders, this changes the risk equation. Financial controls can be bypassed without systems ever being breached. Governance can be undermined by a single convincing call. And confidence in spotting fakes is no longer a reliable defence — especially when most people significantly overestimate their ability to detect AI‑generated content.

The reality is stark: deepfake attacks are increasing rapidly, there is currently little legal protection against being deepfaked and traditional security approaches were never designed for this type of threat. Addressing it requires awareness at the top, alignment across teams, and practical countermeasures that work under real‑world pressure.

If you want to understand the risk better and counteract it, our on-demand webinar The Art of Deception: Real vs AI is for you. We break down the cyber kill chain behind deepfake attacks, demonstrates how easily deepfakes can be created using publicly available tools and covert practical countermeasures for your business.

Access the webinar here:

Key takeaways_