Protecting Digital Identity from Deepfake: Cisco Investments Invests in GetReal Security

While Generative AI has ignited the enterprise technology stack, it is also giving an asymmetric advantage to attackers. Bad actors are weaponizing AI platforms and creating potent synthetic data to perpetuate disinformation, financial fraud, impostor hiring and brand damage.

Sophisticated deepfakes and impersonation attacks corrode trust in critical business communications, manipulate transactions, and compromise sensitive information.

"When people can’t trust what they see, hear, or read, it will challenge every organization’s ability to execute,” says Matt Moynahan, CEO of GetReal Security, a cybersecurity company that specializes in the prevention, detection, and mitigation of threats posed by malicious generative AI content, ensuring the authenticity and integrity of digital communications.

Cisco Investments is excited to invest in GetReal Security and work with them to enhance the security and trustworthiness of digital communications, ensuring that the integration of AI technologies is done responsibly and ethically to protect businesses and individuals from the growing threats of digital deception. 

Restoring Trust in Digital Communications

The cybersecurity landscape has long focused on the CIA Triad: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. While significant progress has been made in protecting confidentiality through access controls and ensuring availability via robust network infrastructures, the integrity of digital content—ensuring that information is accurate and trustworthy—has remained a significant hurdle. 

“I don't even pick up my cell phone anymore because the people that are calling are spoofing cell phone numbers to look like they're from area codes of people I love. But you can't do that in a business environment. You can't just not pick up,” Moynahan explains. 

This everyday challenge underscores the broader issue of trust in digital interactions, which is exactly what GetReal Security aims to address. 

“The ultimate problem that we're trying to solve right now is bringing trust to the presentation layer of every digital interaction,” Moynahan continues. “Whether it's video, audio, or images you're looking at, and making sure that employees and partners and executives know that the content they're making business decisions on is trustworthy and correct.”

GetReal Security leverages a unique combination of advanced AI techniques and world-class digital forensics expertise. After all, the company was co-founded by Dr. Hany Farid, a leading expert in digital forensics with over 30 years of experience, and a tenured professor at the University of California, Berkeley focusing on forensic science, misinformation, image analysis, and human perception. Their multi-modal and multi-model strategy allows for the prevention, detection, and mitigation of threats across various forms of digital content.

"Our multi-dimensional approach is what really sets us apart,” Moynahan claims. “I would say our expertise is understanding how the 3D world works and when something is manifested in 2D. Does it follow the properties like it should in a 3D world if it were actually a real event or a real image or a real anything?”

This strategy not only addresses the immediate threats posed by deepfakes but also positions GetReal Security as a leader in the broader field of digital fraud risk management.

Alignments with Cisco

Cisco Investments recognizes the alignment between its goals and GetReal Security’s mission to secure digital communications. 

By investing in GetReal Security, Cisco gains valuable insights into an emergent market focused on deepfake protection, which is increasingly important in the realm of AI security.

Additionally, GetReal Security’s technology offers advantages by future-proofing collaboration tools against potential deepfake attacks. As collaboration platforms are often targeted as points of entry for these sophisticated threats, investing in robust detection capabilities can help ensure that collaboration solutions remain competitive and secure in an evolving digital landscape.

Innovating for the Future

GetReal Security is poised to lead the charge in the cybersecurity landscape with its upcoming real-time streaming security capabilities. As the regulatory environment around AI and cybersecurity evolves, the company's expertise will become increasingly vital in guiding enterprises through these changes.

"Our ultimate vision is to have a world of secured digital identities," Moynahan says, “because, in a digital-first world, believing in what you're seeing or hearing is paramount." 

As the company name portends, this team and platform are on a mission to keep digital content real.