Deep Fakes and Misinformation in the Finance Sector - Strategies to Prevent and Deter

Bank of America (BofA) has asked the Columbia Capstone team to compile trends, insights, and best practices on mitigating the risks associated with disinformation and deep fakes in the financial sector. The research methodology included a deep dive into deepfake and disinformation literature, case studies, and fifteen in-depth interviews with private and public sector professionals. These interviews shed light on how deepfakes and disinformation have affected professionals across both the private and public sector, particularly those involved in work with the financial sector.  

As new technologies complicate the cyber landscape, security professionals must update strategies to effectively prevent, deter, and respond to disinformation campaigns. Hyper-realistic deepfakes, undetectable to the human eye, pose a growing threat to the financial sector as they allow cybercriminals to outsmart even the most security-conscious employees. Based on the team’s analysis, increased employee training efforts, especially for high-profile executives susceptible to being ‘deepfaked’ or otherwise impersonated - from spear phishing campaigns to media presence - will be a crucial pillar for security controls to enhance organizations’ resilience to deepfake and disinformation threats. Multi-factor authentication also becomes more essential when seeing or hearing (in the case of audio deepfakes) is no longer a guarantee of authenticity. The report focused on examining the techniques, tactics, and tools that drive deepfakes and disinformation. It analyzed specific impacts on financial institutions and recommended mitigation strategies for detection, prevention, and response. Lastly, the team explored how new technologies arising from AI innovations can be leveraged for a variety of purposes across all sectors.