ATLANTA, GA — [September 28, 2026] — Pindrop, an Industry leading cybersecurity company specializing in deepfake and fraud detection, today released the 2026 PindropⓇ Deepfake Readiness Index, revealing a significant gap between the growing threat of deepfake attacks and enterprise readiness to defend against them.
The 2026 Pindrop Deepfake Readiness Index, based on a survey of 250 U.S. security leaders at enterprises with 1,000 or more employees, found that 74% have encountered or suspect a deepfake attack in the past year, yet only 10% report having purpose-built tools to address the threat.
The consequences are already significant. Among organizations that experienced or suspected a deepfake attack, nearly half reported costs of $500,000 or more, including direct losses, remediation and staff time. One in four reported costs of $1 million or more from a single incident. Nearly half, 49%, also experienced follow-on cyberattacks such as ransomware.
Attackers have figured out that one of the easiest ways around sophisticated security controls is to impersonate the human those controls are designed to trust. Deepfakes turn our most instinctive signals of identity, a familiar face and voice, into an attack surface. Enterprises need to bring the same rigor used to secure systems and devices to the live human interactions where critical decisions are being made.Elie Khoury, SVP of Research at Pindrop.
The deepfake threat is clear. The boardroom response is not.
Concern is nearly universal. 93% of security leaders say they are concerned their organizations aren't prepared for a deepfake attack. Yet the research suggests that concern has not translated into boardroom urgency.
The security leaders prioritizing deepfake detection today are the only ones who'll have a real answer when their board starts to ask questions.Jim Routh, Chairman of Pindrop CISO Deepfake Defense Council and former six-time CSO/CISO in financial services and healthcare.
Three in four security leaders say it will take a company leader being personally fooled or impersonated before deepfakes become a genuine boardroom priority. At the same time, 37% believe the damage caused by a single deepfake attack could put a company like theirs out of business, including 17% who consider that outcome extremely likely or certain.
Taken together, the findings reveal a widening deepfake readiness gap. Security leaders recognize the threat and are already seeing its financial and operational consequences, yet enterprise defenses and board-level urgency have not kept pace. Perhaps most striking, 74% believe defenses will improve faster than the quality of attacks, even as purpose-built adoption remains low.
That confidence is being tested against a rapidly changing threat landscape. Pindrop data shows AI-driven attacks increased 1,680% from Q4 2024 through June 2026 and are growing eight times faster than traditional attack types.
Deepfakes are now an enterprise identity problem
Deepfake attacks increasingly extend beyond manipulated content and public figures into the real-time interactions enterprises depend on to establish trust. Phone calls into IT help desks and contact centers, remote job interviews, virtual meetings and executive communications all create opportunities for attackers to exploit synthetic identities and social engineering.
Yet more than one in three enterprises are still relying on legacy defenses to combat deepfakes. The Index points to live communication channels as a growing gap in enterprise security strategies. Traditional identity and access controls such as IAM, SSO and MFA were not designed to determine whether the person speaking or appearing on the other side of a live interaction is real.
Deepfake detection provides a critical layer of visibility into these interactions. As synthetic identities become more sophisticated, enterprises will need a broader trust framework for establishing who or what is interacting with them and whether that interaction can be trusted.
The 2026 Pindrop Deepfake Readiness Index establishes a new benchmark for enterprise deepfake preparedness, giving security leaders a way to measure their defenses against peers and identify gaps across their organizations. Organizations can also use Pindrop's Deepfake Readiness Assessment to evaluate their current investments, defenses and workforce capabilities and receive a readiness score with recommended next steps.
Download the 2026 Pindrop Deepfake Readiness Index
Take the Deepfake Readiness Assessment
About Pindrop
Pindrop is a cybersecurity company delivering continuous identity verification and deepfake detection across voice, video and digital communications in real time. Its Identity Trust Platform helps establish whether an identity is real or synthetic, known or unknown and trusted or risky across customer, workforce and AI agent interaction.
Decisions are powered by the Pindrop Intelligence Network (PIN), built from more than 8 billion analyzed interactions and built on Pindrop’s patented technology backed by a portfolio of 300+ patents. Pindrop is trusted by 14 of the top 20 banks, five of the top seven insurers and three of the largest healthcare providers and in 2026 TIME named Pindrop one of the 10 Most Influential Software Companies.
Pindrop's mission is to restore trust in every real-time communication. Learn more at pindrop.com.
Media contact: [email protected]
Research Methodology: Wakefield Research surveyed 250 U.S. security leaders at organizations with 1,000 or more employees from June 11–22, 2026. The total sample has a margin of error of ±6.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
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