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Deepfake Fraud: The $40 Billion Threat Targeting Small Businesses

Deepfake Fraud: The $40 Billion Threat Targeting Small Businesses

by | Sep 16, 2025 | Cybersecurity

By John Hensberger, Founder, Black Bottle IT

Small business owners, we need to talk about deepfakes. And this isn’t a conversation about futuristic technology or Hollywood special effects – this is about an immediate, devastating threat that’s targeting businesses exactly like yours right now.

The Numbers Don’t Lie: Deepfake Fraud Has Exploded

The statistics are staggering and should keep every business owner awake at night. Deepfake fraud attempts have exploded by over 3,000% in 2024. Let that sink in – a thirty-fold increase in just one year.

But here’s what makes this even more alarming for small businesses: criminals aren’t just targeting Fortune 500 companies anymore. They’re specifically going after smaller businesses because they know you don’t have the enterprise-level security that larger corporations deploy.

What’s Actually Happening to Businesses Like Yours

These aren’t theoretical attacks. They’re happening every single day:

The Fake CEO Call: Your phone rings. It’s your CEO or business partner, asking you to wire money urgently for a “confidential deal.” The voice sounds exactly right – because AI has cloned it perfectly from videos on your company website or social media.

The Deepfake Video Conference: You receive a video call from your biggest client requesting changes to payment information. You can see their face, hear their voice, and everything seems normal. Except it’s not them – it’s a sophisticated deepfake created from their LinkedIn photos and recorded presentations.

The Trusted Vendor Scam: A long-time vendor sends you an email with an attached video message explaining new payment procedures. The face and voice are perfect matches, but the bank details route money straight to criminals.

These scenarios aren’t science fiction. A multinational engineering firm lost $25 million when an employee was fooled by a deepfake video conference call. An 82-year-old business owner drained his retirement fund investing $690,000 in a deepfake Elon Musk cryptocurrency scam.

The Knowledge Gap That’s Putting You at Risk

Here’s the brutal truth about where most small businesses stand today:

  • 71% of people worldwide don’t know what deepfakes are (Iproov survey)
  • 1 in 4 company leaders have little to no familiarity with deepfake technology
  • Small businesses lose an average of 10% of annual profits to successful deepfake attacks
  • More than half of companies haven’t provided any training to employees on deepfake threats

While you’re focused on running your business, serving customers, and driving growth, criminals are perfecting AI tools specifically designed to exploit companies of your size. They’re betting on the fact that you don’t have dedicated cybersecurity staff and that your employees haven’t been trained to recognize these sophisticated attacks.

Why Traditional IT Support Isn’t Enough

Your current IT provider may excel at repairing computers, managing your network, and keeping your systems. But deepfake fraud operates in a completely different realm. It exploits human psychology, not technical vulnerabilities.

These attacks bypass traditional security measures because they don’t target your firewall or antivirus software. They target your people. And unless your IT support understands both the technology behind deepfakes AND the psychology of social engineering, they can’t protect you from this threat.

The Real Cost of Being Wrong

For a small business, one successful deepfake attack isn’t just a financial loss – it could be a company-ending event. Consider the real costs:

Direct Financial Loss: The immediate theft of funds, which averaged $500,000 per successful attack in 2024.

Business Disruption: The time spent dealing with law enforcement, banks, insurance companies, and trying to recover stolen funds.

Reputation Damage: Customers losing trust when they learn your business fell victim to fraud.

Legal Complications: Potential liability issues if customer data or funds were compromised.

Recovery Costs: The expense of implementing new security measures after an attack.

For many small businesses, these combined costs would be impossible to absorb.

What You Can Do to Protect Your Business

The good news is that deepfake fraud is preventable when you know what to look for and implement the right defenses. Here’s what every small business needs to do immediately:

Independent Verification: Your First Line of Defense

Never act on suspicious requests without verification through trusted channels. This is your most critical defense against deepfake fraud.

  • If someone calls requesting money transfers or sensitive information, hang up and call them back using contact information you have on file
  • Don’t trust the caller ID – criminals can spoof phone numbers to make calls appear to come from trusted sources
  • For video calls, ask specific questions that only the real person would know, or reference recent conversations or inside information
  • Establish verification protocols with key vendors, clients, and employees before you need them

Implement Multi-Layer Defense

Deploy multiple security measures that work together:

  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Require additional verification beyond just passwords for all critical systems
  • Advanced Email Filters: Use business-grade email security that can detect sophisticated phishing attempts and suspicious attachments
  • Limit Public Information Sharing: Reduce the amount of video and audio content featuring key personnel on your website, social media, and public platforms – criminals need this content to create convincing deepfakes
  • Financial Controls: Implement dual approval processes for any money transfers above a certain threshold

Employee Training: Your Human Firewall

Your employees are both your greatest vulnerability and your strongest defense.

Regular training should cover:

  • How to recognize common social engineering tactics
  • What deepfakes are and how they’re used in business fraud
  • Your company’s verification procedures for unusual requests
  • Red flags to watch for in phone calls, emails, and video communications
  • Who to contact immediately if they suspect an attack

This training isn’t a one-time event. Criminals constantly evolve their tactics, so your team’s knowledge needs to evolve too.

The Bottom Line: You Can’t Afford to Wait

Deepfake fraud isn’t coming to small businesses – it’s already here. While you’re reading this, criminals are using AI to clone voices, create fake videos, and target businesses exactly like yours.

The question isn’t whether these attacks will continue to grow (they will). The question is whether your business will be prepared when criminals target you.

At Black Bottle IT, we protect businesses from threats that traditional IT providers don’t even understand exist. We don’t just maintain your technology – we defend against the sophisticated, AI-powered attacks that could devastate your business overnight.

Don’t wait until you’re the next headline. The time to act is now, before the criminals come calling with your CEO’s voice asking for that “urgent” wire transfer.

Ready to protect your business from AI-powered fraud? Contact Black Bottle IT today to learn how we can defend your company against deepfake attacks and other emerging cybersecurity threats.

John Hensberger is the founder of Black Bottle IT, a cybersecurity-focused managed service provider specializing in protecting small and medium businesses from emerging digital threats. With years of experience in cybersecurity and business technology, John helps companies navigate the complex landscape of modern cyber threats while maintaining operational efficiency.

Is Your Password Protection Duct Tape?

Is Your Password Protection Duct Tape?

by | Jun 13, 2025 | Cybersecurity

Yes, we are in the year 2025, and yet weak passwords remain one of the easiest entry points for cybercriminals. While your team focuses on growing the business, hackers systematically test common passwords like “123456” and “password123” against your systems.

The uncomfortable truth? Most businesses walk around with digital front doors held shut by nothing more than duct tape and good intentions.

If your employees still use their pet’s name plus their birth year, or worse, the same password across multiple accounts, you’re not just vulnerable—you’re practically inviting trouble.

But here’s the good news (and this has been no secret): robust password policies aren’t complicated to implement, and they’re one of the most cost-effective security measures you can deploy. The key is moving beyond the “just make it complicated” approach to a comprehensive strategy that actually works in the real world.

Let’s walk through exactly how to build password policies that protect your business without driving your team crazy.

Implementing strong password policies is crucial for protecting business systems. Here’s a more detailed breakdown:

Require complex passwords:

  • Mandate a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters
  • Prohibit common words, phrases, or easily guessable information (like birthdates)
  • Consider using passphrases instead of single words
  • Set minimum length requirements (e.g., at least 12 characters)
  • A reminder to implement multi-factor authentication (MFA):

 

Require a second form of verification beyond passwords

Options include:

  • Require a second form of verification beyond passwords
  • SMS codes (though less secure than other methods)
  • Authenticator apps (like Google Authenticator or Authy)
  • Hardware tokens (such as YubiKeys)
  • Biometric verification (fingerprints, facial recognition)
  • Apply MFA to all critical systems and accounts, especially those with administrative access

 

Use password managers:

  • Encourage or require employees to use reputable password management tools
  • These tools generate and store strong, unique passwords for each account
  • Reduces the risk of password reuse across multiple accounts
  • Some options include LastPass, 1Password, or Bitwarden

 

Implement password rotation policies:

  • Require password changes at regular intervals (e.g., every 90 days)
  • Prevent the reuse of recent passwords

 

Monitor for compromised credentials:

  • This is where Black Bottle IT comes in with services that check if employee email addresses or passwords have been exposed in known data breaches
  • We will require immediate password changes if compromised credentials are detected

 

Implement account lockout policies:

  • Our solution will lock accounts after a certain number of failed login attempts
  • This helps prevent brute-force attacks

 

Use single sign-on (SSO) for multiple applications:

  • Reduces the number of passwords employees need to remember
  • Allows for centralized control and monitoring of access

 

By implementing these robust password policies, businesses can significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access to their systems, making it much harder for hackers to intrude.

Contact Black Bottle IT today to remove the duct tape!

Beyond Break-Fix: Transform Your IT with Proactive Management

Beyond Break-Fix: Transform Your IT with Proactive Management

by | Nov 4, 2024 | Cybersecurity

Implementing a comprehensive, proactive maintenance strategy through Managed IT Services is essential for modern businesses seeking to maintain operational excellence and minimize costly downtime.

Organizations can identify and address potential issues before they escalate into major problems that disrupt business operations by continuously monitoring system health, automating critical updates, and conducting regular infrastructure assessments. This preventive approach safeguards against unexpected system failures and optimizes performance across the entire IT infrastructure. A well-managed IT environment reduces security risks, ensures compliance with industry standards, and provides predictable IT costs through strategic planning.

Moreover, with automated monitoring and expert oversight, businesses can focus on their core objectives while maintaining confidence that their technology infrastructure is operating at peak efficiency, backed by robust disaster recovery protocols that protect against both natural disasters and cyber threats. This proactive stance ultimately translates into improved system reliability, enhanced user productivity, and a more substantial return on technology investments.

5 Proactive IT maintenance and managed services Black Bottle IT focuses on with their clients:

  • Regular system monitoring and diagnostics detect potential hardware failures, performance bottlenecks, and security vulnerabilities before they cause disruptions – this includes monitoring server health, network traffic patterns, and system resource usage to identify warning signs early.
  • Automated patch management and software updates ensure all systems have the latest security fixes and performance improvements, reducing exposure to cyber threats and preventing compatibility issues between applications.
  • Scheduled hardware assessments and lifecycle management help plan for equipment replacement before components reach end-of-life, preventing unexpected failures and allowing for strategic budget planning for upgrades.
  • Continuous network optimization through bandwidth monitoring, traffic analysis, and infrastructure tuning keeps data flowing efficiently and prevents slowdowns that can impact productivity.
  • Systematic data backup verification and disaster recovery testing ensures business continuity plans remain viable and can be executed successfully if needed, protecting against both system failures and cybersecurity incidents.

Black Bottle IT would love to learn more about your work environment and provide an assessment for a modern-day Managed IT and Cybersecurity Solution. Contact us today!

Make it Harder for Hackers to Intrude

Make it Harder for Hackers to Intrude

by | Sep 8, 2024 | Cybersecurity, Cybersecurity Awareness

Implementing strong password policies is crucial for protecting business systems. If you think this best practice does not apply to your business, what would you say and do if your employees’ and customers’ personal information were stolen?

Here’s a more detailed breakdown on the best practices to fight modern-day intrusions.

Require complex passwords:

  • Set minimum length requirements (e.g., at least 12 characters)
  • Mandate a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters
  • Prohibit common words, phrases, or easily guessable information (like birthdates)
  • Consider using passphrases instead of single words

Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA):

Require a second form of verification beyond passwords

Options include:

  • SMS codes (though less secure than other methods)
  • Authenticator apps (like Google Authenticator or Authy)
  • Hardware tokens (such as YubiKeys)
  • Biometric verification (fingerprints, facial recognition)

Apply MFA to all critical systems and accounts, especially those with administrative access

Use password managers:

  • Encourage or require employees to use reputable password management tools
  • These tools generate and store strong, unique passwords for each account
  • Reduces the risk of password reuse across multiple accounts
  • Some options include LastPass, 1Password, or Bitwarden

Implement password rotation policies:

  • Require password changes at regular intervals (e.g., every 90 days)
  • Prevent reuse of recent passwords
  • Monitor for compromised credentials:
  • Use services that check if employee email addresses or passwords have been exposed in known data breaches
  • Require immediate password changes if compromised credentials are detected

Implement account lockout policies:

  • Lock accounts after a certain number of failed login attempts
  • This helps prevent brute-force attacks

Use single sign-on (SSO) for multiple applications:

  • Reduces the number of passwords employees need to remember
  • Allows for centralized control and monitoring of access

By implementing these robust password policies, businesses can significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access to their systems, making it much harder for hackers to intrude when you are at work and away!

Black Bottle IT would love to learn more about your work environment and provide an assessment for a modern-day cybersecurity solution. Contact us today!

Going Beyond Boundaries. The Need to Define Access Controls   

Going Beyond Boundaries. The Need to Define Access Controls   

by | Mar 26, 2024 | Cybersecurity

It is about that time of year when employees submit for their vacation. Will you allow them to take their work computer on vacation? There are two obvious reasons not to allow their workbag to travel with them. Vacations are a time for rest, relaxation, and spending time with friends and families. Second, a work computer undoubtedly contains sensitive information. A leak of any sensitive information in or out could be catastrophic to your organization.   

What are Access Controls?  

Access controls are security measures or ‘boundaries’ that regulate who can access specific resources, such as data, systems, or physical locations, what actions they can perform when they have access, and where they can access.  “Good access control rules around your tenant” specifically means that your organization must limit “who can access the account, from where, and from what device.”  

As in the illustration, access controls can limit where systems can be accessed by specific machines and even by allowed business hours. So, if a bad actor is trying to access critical systems from outside the normal geography of business (e.g., outside the U.S.), during odd times of the day (e.g., 2:00 a.m.), access would be blocked. This type of control protects sensitive data if credentials are compromised.  

 
It is important to define where company employees access systems, from what machines, and during what times of the day. If employees are doing work outside of these controls, develop a process for requesting temporary access, for example, working from the beach, and set the beginning and ending timeframes to remove access from these temporary situations.

  

Why Access Controls?  

Reducing the attack surface: Limiting access to systems and data reduces the potential attack surface for cybercriminals. Even if a malicious actor gains access to login credentials,  part of access controls can prevent them from compromising systems.

There is a lot at stake in addition to protecting sensitive data. Access controls ensure that only authorized users have access to sensitive information. While the experts at Black Bottle IT are focused on cybersecurity and limiting the potential for a cyber incident, when you limit geography, machine, and time systems can be accessed, you also reduce the risk of human errors that cause lost data.   

  

Three Reasons Why Access Controls Are Fundamental 

Compliance requirements: Many industries have strict regulations governing the protection of sensitive data, such as HIPAA in healthcare or GDPR in the European Union. Implementing access controls helps organizations comply with these regulations by demonstrating that they have measures to safeguard data.

Detecting and responding to security incidents: Access controls can also help detect and respond to security incidents. Organizations can identify suspicious activity and respond promptly to potential threats by logging access attempts and monitoring user behavior.  

Maintaining business continuity: Cybersecurity incidents can disrupt business operations and lead to significant financial losses. Access controls help maintain business continuity by minimizing the impact of security breaches and ensuring that critical systems and data remain protected. 

  

What Your Organization Must Do to Protect Company Data  

  • Heighten Cybersecurity Awareness & Phishing Training    
  • Enforce Access Controls around all cloud-based tools, i.e., AWS, Google Workspace, QuickBooks Online, Microsoft Office 365   
  • Lock down the Administrative Account to a specific IP address  
  • Monitor Tenants 24×7 — multiple organizations or individuals, referred to as “tenants,” share the same computing infrastructure, resources, and services  
  • Continuous monitoring is crucial for promptly detecting and responding to security threats and incidents as they occur, minimizing the potential impact on tenants’ data and systems.  

 

Remember: Heightening cybersecurity controls, like access controls, does not indefinitely prevent a cybercriminal from gaining access but makes it more difficult.   

Everyone deserves a vacation. We have you covered.  Contact us today for more information and how to get started with access controls. blackbottleit.com/contact-us.

The More Cybersecurity Changes The More it Remains the Same

The More Cybersecurity Changes The More it Remains the Same

by | Jan 15, 2024 | Cybersecurity, Cybersecurity Awareness, Uncategorized

“The more things change, the more they stay the same” means that despite apparent changes or advancements, certain fundamental aspects or patterns remain unchanged over time. One could relate this to cybersecurity.

  • Cyberattacks cost impacted organizations thousands, if not millions, of dollars.
  • Cybersecurity is a critical element of homeland security after 9-11.
  • Ransomware and phishing have always been pervasive.
  • Since on-premise storage still exists for some businesses, despite the rise of cloud computing, monitoring and protecting data will remain an important part of any security execution plan.

Gartner reports that 85% of organizations will embrace a cloud-first principle by 2025 and will not be able to fully execute their digital strategies without the use of cloud-native architectures and technologies. (May 2023)

Three Key Cybersecurity Focal Points that Will Remain the Same for Foreseeable Future

Rise in Cybersecurity Regulations:

Governments and regulatory bodies were expected to enhance and introduce new cybersecurity regulations to address the evolving threat landscape and protect sensitive data.

Focus on Cloud Security:

With the increasing adoption of cloud services, there was a growing emphasis on securing cloud environments. This includes implementing robust identity and access management, encryption, and monitoring.

Enhanced Endpoint Security:

As remote work became more prevalent, securing endpoints (devices used by employees) gained importance. Endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions were expected to evolve.

 

This year, we will learn more about AI and machine learning techniques to improve response efficiency.

Black Bottle IT is focused on keeping data secure, which, in turn, will keep your business operational and competitive.  Please reach out if you want to outsource your organization’s cybersecurity function!  Contact us today.