Deepfake threat grows, but technology solutions are catching up, say experts

While the rapid advancement of deepfake technology poses serious challenges, technological solutions are also evolving to detect and combat them, panelists said at The Hindu Tech Summit 2026 hosted by The Hindu, along with the VIT, here on Thursday.

Addressing a session on Cyber Resilience in an AI-driven world: Balancing Risk, Recovery and Privacy, Vinod R., Director-Platforms Solution, Sutherland, said artificial intelligence has democratised impersonation in a faster and cheaper way through deepfakes. Two-factor or multiple-factor authentication is one of the detection methods to recognise deepfake-driven fraud. Detecting deepfakes, he added, requires analysing multiple signals rather than relying on a single image or video.

In the session moderated by N. Nagaraj, vice-president, Data and Analytics, The Hindu, the panelists said the prevalence of deepfakes was likely to increase in the coming years and emphasised that creating public awareness would go a long way in countering the threat.

Manjunath Prasad, Head (IT), TVS Mobility Private Limited, said technology was also adapting to keep pace with the challenges posed by deepfakes. However, it is an evolving journey and human resources must be upskilled to tackle AI that is becoming smarter. Business entities must also recognise that AI is real and proactively adapt to the technology.

Pointing out that deepfakes are increasingly outsmarting original content, Balaji T.K., assistant vice-president, Engineering, Epimoney Private Limited, FlexiLoans, said constructing a well-defined internal defence system was essential.

In the banking sector, users are being educated not to trust unknown sources, and multiple authentication algorithms are being built for banking transactions. Organisations must also train employees and consumers to identify deepfake threats from an information security perspective, he said.

Speakers said that corporate managements are becoming more informed about business performance and factoring in elements such as cybersecurity tools into their decisions. They emphasised that cybersecurity initiatives must be presented to the management in clear business terms, highlighting measurable outcomes and return on investment to secure funding and support.

They also underlined the importance of adopting the right technologies to safeguard infrastructure and operating environments.

Ramkumar Dilli, Chief Information Officer and Head of Security, Myridius, said corporate managements, which earlier focused primarily on recovery plans, now seek detailed metrics such as meantime to mitigate and contain incidents. He added that every organisation had begun assessing its security posture and maturity levels to strengthen its cyber resilience framework.

Panelists also stressed the importance of human intervention at a time when AI is deployed on both the attack and defensive fronts of cybersecurity. They stressed the need for continuous monitoring and traceability mechanisms, supported by benchmarks to validate data, to counter threats such as data poisoning.