Fake online videos growing corporate threat: Cybersecurity expert

U.S. corporations are becoming more susceptible to the threat and harm caused by bogus online videos, according to CyberSponse founder Joseph Loomis.

“It really becomes problematic when you are releasing new products or even positions or statements as a publicly traded company,” he told FOX Business’ Liz Claman on Thursday.

A “deepfake” video featuring the likeness of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg surfaced on Instagram where the social media executive declared he was aware the company controlled the public’s data.

Loomis said the Zuckerberg video shows how easy it is to tarnish a reputation and how difficult it is to take down a “deepfake” video.

“We believe seeing is believing,” he said. “We are going to have to guess authenticity of the actual video itself to see if this is real or not before we make a decision.”

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Loomis, whose company helps mitigate the cyber threat for tech giants like Apple and Microsoft, said companies can protect themselves by rapidly responding with a prepared communications and legal team. A defensive tactic he suggest is building a rapport with the legal teams of social media companies that are used as an advertising outlet for your product.

“I’ve recommended running tabletop exercises, basically demonstrations of let’s pretend that there’s a fake video out today. What do we do?” he said. “Run through those scenarios and put a good communications, legal team together.”