The Latest Deepfake Numbers Give CISOs Plenty to Worry About
Help Net Security, Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026
Gartner survey finds 41% of CISOs hit by audio deepfake social engineering incidents in the past year.
A Gartner survey of 297 cybersecurity leaders finds that 41% of CISOs experienced at least one social engineering incident involving audio deepfakes in the past year, and 36% reported video deepfake incidents.
The research shows AI-powered synthetic media is helping attackers penetrate organizations more effectively than traditional phishing. Gartner recommends three defenses: making verification the default response across all communication channels, deploying phishing-resistant authentication for critical workflows, and updating incident response plans for multimodal impersonation attacks.
The problem is worsening as AI improves and detection lags, with nearly 90% of adults unable to tell real content from AI-generated material.