As 2025 commences, deepfake technology still presents unprecedented challenges to businesses, law enforcement, and society. A combination of ‘deep-learning’ and ‘fake,’ deepfakes can be used for manipulation, to spread disinformation, and to alter the truth. This article will highlight eight common deepfake threats already creating havoc and how new technology can be used to prevent deepfakes from the outset.
- Political Interference
First on the list, political manipulation through deepfakes is one of the most significant threats to democratic institutions. Advanced AI-generated content can now create compelling videos of political figures saying things they’ve never said or doing things they’ve never done. The timing of such releases, especially during election cycles, can change public opinion before the deepfake can be discredited. The real danger lies not just in the immediate impact of false content but in the erosion of trust in politics, creating a “liar’s dividend” where genuine footage can be dismissed as fake.
- Terrorist Content Online
Terrorists can use deepfake technology to increase their impact and spread disinformation. Terror groups can now create realistic videos showing fake attacks, false statements from world leaders, or staged acts of violence. This allows them to provoke panic and manipulate viewers to their agenda. The technology will also enable terrorists to create convincing training materials and recruitment videos, making their messaging more compelling.
- Digital Identity and Misuse of Online Systems
We are beginning to see that online systems are susceptible to deepfake-enabled fraud. Criminals can now generate synthetic identities with convincing video footage for remote verification systems. In a recent attack on a prominent Indonesian financial organization, 1100 deepfake fraud attempts were made to bypass their security. This threatens the integrity of digital identity verification in passport applications, social security systems, and other online services. The ability to create lifelike video responses in real-time particularly challenges current biometric security measures and video-based verification protocols.
- Inciting Hate or Violence
Deepfakes can be used to stir up hate or violence by creating fake videos or audio that show people saying or doing harmful things. For example, they could make it look like a political or community leader is encouraging violence or insulting a particular group. This content can quickly spark anger, deepen divides, and even lead to real-world violence. In situations where tensions are high, a believable deepfake could easily push things over the edge, spreading false information and making it harder to trust what’s real.
- Fraud
Financial fraud schemes are evolving rapidly with deepfake technology. Criminals can now create convincing video and audio impersonations of corporate executives to authorise fraudulent transfers or manipulate stock prices. We have already seen this play out in real life, when fraud scammers created a real-time deepfake video of a CFO, authorising a $25m payment. The technology enables sophisticated business email compromise (BEC) scams where video calls appear to show genuine company leaders. Investment fraud also becomes more convincing when scammers can create detailed fake video evidence of returns and business operations.
- Non-Consensual Image Abuse
Perhaps one of the most personally devastating applications of deepfake technology is the creation of non-consensual intimate content. This abuse form has become more sophisticated, with AI-generated content becoming increasingly complex and challenging to distinguish from genuine content. The psychological impact on victims is severe, and the potential for blackmail is significant. The viral nature of online content makes it particularly challenging to contain once released, unfortunately creating long-lasting consequences for victims.
- Grooming, Harassment, Blackmail, and Extortion
Predators are adapting deepfake technology to create more sophisticated grooming and exploitation strategies. The technology enables more convincing impersonations of trustworthy people, making it easier to manipulate vulnerable individuals. Extortion schemes become more persuasive when backed by the threat of releasing synthetic compromising material.
- Police Evidential / Criminal Justice Risk
Finally, the emergence of sophisticated deepfakes presents significant challenges for criminal justice systems. Criminal Justice and law enforcement must now contend with the possibility that video, photo, or audio evidence, traditionally considered reliable, could be synthetically generated. Deepfakes can be used to support fake alibis or can be presented as exonerating evidence for the accused. This poses a serious risk to the legitimacy of genuine evidence, which may increasingly face routine challenges. Moreover, deepfake material will significantly impact public and jury confidence in the authenticity of digital evidence, potentially leading to increased prosecution costs and cases being dropped or lost.
Ultimately, the justice system and public must be assured that the digital evidence presented, whether photos, interview recordings, or other digital evidence, is authentic. So, where there is an opportunity to ensure the evidential integrity and authenticity of captured digital evidence, it must be taken to mitigate this threat.
The Future for Deepfakes
Deepfakes present a growing risk to society, with malicious uses ranging from political interference to personal abuse. Whilst eight key threats have been highlighted, synthetic media’s potential for harm is vast and continually evolving.
Efforts to detect and prevent deepfakes are available, but as technology advances, deepfakes may soon become indistinguishable from real media. This comes with significant challenges, particularly for policing and criminal justice systems, where the reliability of digital evidence is increasingly at risk. Whilst there is no foolproof solution to detect a deepfake, there is a solution that can prove the integrity of digital evidence from the point of capture.
The Mea Digital Evidence Integrity products were designed to prove the integrity of digital evidence. Whether taking photographic evidence at a crime scene or recording victim, witness, or suspect statements remotely, as soon as you capture or store the digital file, it’s sealed in a digital tamper-evident bag. This provides the trust that all your digital assets remain secure and tamper-evident throughout their life.
Contact us to learn more about the benefits of the Mea Digital Evidence Integrity products, including MeaConnexus and MeaFuse.
