“Attackers have figured out that one of the easiest ways around sophisticated security controls is to impersonate the human those controls are designed to trust. Deepfakes turn our most instinctive signals of identity, a familiar face and voice, into an attack surface,” said Elie Khoury, SVP of research at Pindrop.
Pindrop Deepfake Readiness Index (28 September 2026)
The 2026 Pindrop Deepfake Readiness Index, published on 28 September, paints a stark picture: deepfakes are already a widespread operational problem for many organizations and enterprise readiness lags dangerously behind. Pindrop’s survey of over 250 US security leaders found that 74% said they have encountered a suspected deepfake attack in the last 12 months, and 93% of security leaders expressed concern that their organization is not currently prepared to face the threat posed by deepfake attacks.
Scale of financial losses reported
The financial impact reported by respondents is notable. Of organizations that encountered a suspected deepfake attack, one in four reported losses of over $1m from a single incident. Nearly half (49%) of those hit by deepfake attacks reported losses of $500,000. Pindrop’s report specifies that those figures include not only direct losses but also the costs tied to remediation and the time and resources staff expended responding to attacks.
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End the scrambleTactics: impersonation, fraudulent transfers, and nation-state use
The report details how attackers are applying deepfake technology. Deepfakes—AI-generated audio and video of people—are being used to impersonate colleagues, bosses or CEOs to trick victims into sharing sensitive information or making fraudulent financial transfers. The report also notes an even more targeted tactic: North Korean nation-state hackers have used deepfakes to pose as fake IT workers seeking employment, a method reportedly aimed at gaining hire-based access to technology and software companies.
Recommended defenses: training, MFA, and updated playbooks
Both Pindrop and a recent Gartner report referenced in Pindrop’s index point to specific defensive steps. Pindrop recommends staff training to help identify deepfakes, deployment of phishing-resistant controls such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) across systems, and that security teams actively look for suspicious communications and impersonation events. Gartner warned that CISOs must update their playbooks to account for the rise of sophisticated deepfakes—an explicit call to incorporate these new mitigations into standard incident-response planning.
What this means for security teams, procurement leaders, and end users
- Security teams: With 74% of surveyed security leaders encountering suspected deepfake attacks and 93% worried about preparedness, teams will have to translate recommended measures—training, detection, and phishing-resistant controls—into operational playbooks and monitoring rules.
- Procurement and enterprise leaders: The reported cost of individual incidents—one in four saying they lost over $1m—makes vendor capabilities for detection, authentication and rapid remediation a business risk consideration for buying decisions and budgeting.
- End users and staff: The report underscores the role of human recognition and response; recommended staff training aims to reduce the likelihood that familiar faces and voices become an exploitable attack surface.
The Pindrop index exposes a clear imbalance: deepfake attacks are already common and costly, yet most security leaders say their organizations are not ready. Three in four respondents said that it will take a company leader being impersonated or fooled by a deepfake before the issue becomes a board-level concern. That reality leaves a pointed question for enterprise leadership: will boards act proactively, or wait until a leader is the next high-cost incident?
