Deepfake threat worries 94% of IT professionals, report finds

A new report from email security firm IRONSCALES highlights the growing concern among IT professionals over the cybersecurity threat posed by deepfake technologies.

According to the report, titled 'Deepfakes: Assessing Organizational Readiness in the Face of This Emerging Cyber Threat', over 94% of IT professionals express some level of concern about the threat deepfakes pose to their organisations. This is compounded by the finding that 74% of respondents are "very concerned" about the threat that deepfakes will pose in the near future.

The report reflects a survey of more than 200 IT professionals and is released at a time when the sophistication of deepfake technologies is making it increasingly difficult to distinguish them from reality. This comes amid a significant election year, with over 60 countries representing more than half of the global population participating in democratic elections, adding further urgency to the issue.

Eyal Benishti, Founder and CEO at IRONSCALES, stated, "As deepfakes grow increasingly sophisticated, and motivations for misuse abound, there is a clear and growing sense of worry taking hold among industry professionals. However, one of the most startling revelations to emerge from this report is just how widespread and severe this concern really is. Worse yet, by all indications, it appears those closest to the problem are in agreement that the worst of what deepfake-enabled threats has to offer is still yet to come."

An additional finding from the report is that while nearly all respondents are worried about the implications of deepfakes, less than half, 42%, express a high degree of confidence in their organisations' ability to counteract these threats effectively.

The report also finds that over 43% of IT professionals anticipate deepfake defence will become their organisations' top security priority within the next 12 to 18 months, with an additional 48% recognising it as a crucial part of their future security operations.

Email is identified as a major channel for deepfake-driven threats, with targeted phishing emails being the second most common type of deepfake-driven cyber attack, surpassed only by static imagery. This concern is echoed by the finding that 53% of IT professionals view email as an "extreme threat" in this context, surpassing social media and messaging apps.

These findings underscore the looming threat of deepfakes and their impact on cybersecurity, both in the present and in the anticipated future landscape of threats, as organisations strive to bolster their defences against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.