Protecting Clients from Deepfake Damage

A third deepfake example is to damage someone’s reputation by connecting them falsely with sexual imagery.

“Examples of deepfake porn are not uncommon,” CSIS says in its 2023 report, The Evolution of Disinformation: A Deepfake Future. “Over 90% of deepfakes available online are non-consensual pornographic clips of women; as of October 2022, there were over 57 million hits for ‘deepfake porn’ on Google alone…and current legislation offers victims little protection or justice.”

Is the answer to trust no one?

“It comes back to education,” Jardine says. “People have to know and appreciate that digital images and audio can be manipulated.”

There are weaknesses in deepfakes. And there are still plenty of telltale signs you’re dealing with a deepfake, Jardine says.

“Deepfakes are terrible at replicating people who wear glasses, because there’s light and reflection from glasses, and deepfakes can’t reproduce that well,” he says.

Plus, he adds: “AI is not good at copying hairlines. They tend to blur right where the hair meshes into the background. You can spot a deepfake by noticing they tend not to get the hairline around the ear correct.”

Finally, watch for faces that stay still in video imagery while the person is talking. When cybercriminals are using deepfakes, “the face tends to be very still and stays straight the whole time,” he says.

This story is excerpted from Canadian Underwriter‘s 2025 February/March print edition.