When Seeing Isn't Believing: Combatting Deepfakes with iProov's Dominic Forrest

How do you know the person on the other end of a video call is who they claim to be? For Cybersecurity Awareness Month, host Frank Cilluffo welcomes iProov Chief Technology Officer Dominic Forrest to Cyber Focus to discuss how deepfakes are changing fraud, cybersecurity, and digital trust.

Forrest demonstrates how a single photograph can be used to impersonate someone on video and explains why awareness alone isn't enough. The conversation examines how impersonation can give attackers access to organizations, what protections employees and consumers need, and how leaders can evaluate defenses. They also explore the challenge of verifying that AI agents are acting with a person's authorization.

Main Topics

Convincing deepfakes made with free software Why familiar faces and voices aren't proof of identity Verifying identity and genuine presence Fake employees and critical infrastructure access Securing onboarding and account recovery Protecting consumers from impersonation scams Testing and updating deepfake defenses Verifying human authorization for AI agents Key Quotes

"I've spent the last 13 years of my life looking at fake faces, and I know today I can't tell the difference between a fake face and a genuine face on a Teams call or on the end of a camera."— Dominic Forrest

"But you cannot put this on the consumer. In the same way as in companies, we do not put phishing entirely on the employee." — Dominic Forrest

"The test I use is if I was in a street and there was a curtain in front of me, would I hand the money through the curtain if I could not see who was on the far side? Because you cannot trust what it is you can see." — Dominic Forrest

"But sometimes at those critical moments, you have to bring it back to the human and say, did this person who I know and I trust authorize this? And is the action that's taking place actually the action that they authorized?"

— Dominic Forrest

"The test I use is if I was in a street and there was a curtain in front of me, would I hand the money through the curtain if I could not see who was on the far side? Because you cannot trust what it is you can see." — Dominic Forrest

Resources Mentioned

iProov CEN/TS 18099 Human Agency Protocol About the Guest: