Dune Security and Reality Defender Team Up at Cooley LLP to Tackle the Rise of Deepfake and Synthetic Media Threats

At Cooley’s Hudson Yards office this week, Dune Security teamed up with our partner Reality Defender to bring security leaders together for a focused discussion on one of the fastest-emerging risks to enterprise integrity: synthetic media.  

Last month, the two companies announced a partnership to provide comprehensive protection against AI-generated media threats targeting global enterprises. The collaboration combines Reality Defender’s advanced detection technology, which identifies synthetic voice, image, video, and text content before it reaches employees, with Dune Security’s User Adaptive Risk Management platform, which simulates multi-channel attacks, scores user risk, and adapts training and controls in real time.  

Deepfake Fraud Isn’t Coming. It’s Here.

The event, Deepfake & Synthetic Media: Cyber Happy Hour & Panel, featured a discussion led by Dune Security CEO David DellaPelle and CTO Michael Waite, alongside Reality Defender CEO Ben Colman and CTO Alex Lisle, and was moderated by Dune Security’s Director of Growth, Kaila Mathis.  

The session opened with a deepfake video of DellaPelle and Colman on a Zoom call, produced by the Dune Studio. At first glance, it appeared completely authentic. Once revealed as fake, the room’s reaction was immediate: surprise, disbelief, and unease at how seamless the impersonation appeared.  

From there, the conversation turned to the speed and accessibility of modern deepfake technology. Generative AI has collapsed the cost of deception, making what once required nation-state infrastructure achievable by anyone with a laptop. As DellaPelle described, “These attacks now reach users through every single angle. It’s like an invasion through every possible method – the channels we once trusted have become the new attack surface.” What began as experimental research has now become a mainstream, low-cost method for fraud, insider manipulation, and disinformation.

The impact is already staggering. In a world where one deepfake video call can trigger a $25 million wire transfer, these attacks have become a preferred tactic for financially motivated threat actors – and the threat is only accelerating. Deloitte projects that deepfake-enabled fraud could cost businesses $40 billion by 2027.  

Enterprises are facing a systemic risk that targets trust itself. Every channel, from email and voice to collaboration tools and encrypted apps, is now part of the attack surface. The challenge is about stopping threat actors before they blindside employees, disrupt operations, or trigger costly decisions based on false information.

Seeing and Hearing Are No Longer Believing

The conversation explored how this erosion of authenticity has broken long-standing assumptions in both business and society. “The worst thing is when you take something that’s always worked, and then it stops working,” Lisle noted. “For a long time, seeing was believing, hearing was believing. But when that stops working, the systems built on it start to break.”  

He shared a striking example from a customer organization that conducted 10,000 virtual interviews, only to discover that 6,000 were deepfakes. The realization underscored how easily the human trust model can be exploited once attackers learn to mimic authenticity.  

From there, the discussion shifted toward resilience: how to make this risk tangible for employees. As Waite explained: “You can give someone a video explaining how easy it is for a hacker to clone their voice,” he said, “but it lands much more when you allow the user to do it... In our platform, users can make a high-fidelity clone of their own voice and hear it say something they never recorded. That’s when it clicks.”  

The discussion made one thing clear: awareness must evolve into action if organizations are to stay ahead of the next wave of AI-driven deception. Stopping today’s most advanced threats requires both machine intelligence to identify manipulation in real time and a workforce prepared to question, verify, and respond with confidence. Together, those capabilities create enterprise preparedness built for the age of synthetic risk.

Organizations must act now, translating awareness into action to preempt AI-driven deception. Combating sophisticated threats requires machine intelligence for real-time manipulation detection and a prepared workforce capable of critical evaluation and response. This dual approach fosters enterprise-wide readiness built for the age of synthetic risk.

Defending Authenticity at Scale

As the conversation neared closing, the panel addressed regulation, data security, and the human element of AI defense. The consensus was evident: deepfakes have introduced a novel category of enterprise risk, one that directly targets perception. Safeguarding against this necessitates that organizations protect their personnel with the same rigor applied to data defense.

To conclude the session, attendees tested their instincts in Reality Defender’s “Guess the Deepfake” game, a quick but sobering exercise that revealed how easily perception can be manipulated. Even seasoned security professionals were often split on which clips were real, despite knowing they were being tested. It raised a critical point: if trained experts can be fooled when focused solely on spotting deepfakes, the risk multiplies when employees are multitasking or under pressure.  

Guests also received copies of Dune Security’s 2025 Insider Threat Intelligence Report, which connects synthetic media to broader behavioral and insider risks. Drawing on survey results from industry-leading enterprise CISOs and proprietary simulation data from Dune’s platform, the report highlights how emotional triggers, user behaviors, and communication channels intersect to create new patterns of compromise across the enterprise.

The event reinforced the foundation of Dune Security’s partnership with Reality Defender: a shared commitment to protecting trust at scale. Together, we’re working to stop cybercrime and empower employees to recognize and resist these risks before they are exploited.