Ahead of his session at the business show DTX + UCX London, Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor at ESET, explains how deepfake technology is being used by threat actors to launch convincing attacks. Jake is speaking at DTX London 2026 on day one of the two-day event, Wednesday, October 14, at London Excel in Docklands.
You can hear him on the Innovation Stage for a session titled ‘The deepfake interview: Breaking in from the inside’, where he will explore how AI-generated face and voice cloning are creating new risks for organisations recruiting in a remote and hybrid working world.
How is deepfake technology currently being used in recruitment and job interviews, and why is it such a security risk for organisations?
Weโre seeing deepfakes used to create entirely fabricated identities, allowing someone else to effectively sit a remote interview and in some cases impersonate real people which is a threat we have not really seen before. The danger is that once they pass the interview and gain access to sensitive information, the game is over and the threat actors win.
How sophisticated is deepfake technology and, combined with advanced AI models, how is it supporting threat actors?ย
It is without doubt better than we imagined it would be at this stage. Naturally, technology continually improves, but we are now at a point when cyber criminals can target companies in extremely creative ways in ways we havenโt seen before or thought possible.
What types of threat actors are likely to target an organisation via deepfake recruitment?ย
Nation state actors remain the number one threat for this type of attack. However, those wanting to chance a second job or simply test out their skills could now easily demonstrate this attack vector without much difficulty. However, the real takeaway from this research is that we now cannot fully trust video communications as it can be easily manipulated and used in a wider attack.
Are organisations putting too much emphasis on protecting themselves from external attackers, while overlooking the insider threat?
We canโt take our eye off protecting from external hackers because insider threats were once external themselves. Itโs just we need to continue to look at our own company weaknesses and double down on the basics and better security where possible because criminals are becoming even more relentless and are now attacking at scale.
What do you hope attendees to your session at DTX will learn?ย
That the threat landscape is more creative than ever and itโs not always a phishing email that will catch you out.
About DTX London: the exhibition covers technology, operations, data, and cyber. Visit https://www.dtxevents.io/.
Photo by Mark Rowe.
