PROTECT YOUR DIGITAL LIFE™
FBI’s 2024 IC3 Annual Report Shows Cybercrime Losses Soar to $16.6B: BlackCloak Answers with Digital Executive Protection
BlackCloak Offers a Digital Safety Net Amid Soaring Cybercrime Complaints and Financial Damages
Orlando, FL – April 24, 2025 – The recently published 2024 FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center Report (IC3) highlights the reality of a digital world increasingly under attack. The report highlights that with 859,532 complaints and cybercrime and financial losses soaring 33% over 2023 to $16.6 billion, it’s clear that no one is safe from mounting cyber threats. BlackCloak, the pioneer in Digital Executive Protection for corporate leaders, high-net-worth individuals, and family offices, delivers the advanced protection required to alleviate the unrelenting attack on personal digital lives.
“The IC3 report is not just a warning—it’s a wake-up call. Cybercriminals are exploiting vulnerabilities in personal digital security at an unprecedented scale,” said Dr. Chris Pierson, Founder and CEO of BlackCloak. “From cyber-enabled fraud to malicious threats like ransomware and data breaches, the stakes are higher than ever today. The IC3 report highlights just how critical it is to safeguard the executive and high-network individual’s digital footprint and the need to go beyond simple data broker removal to a more holistic approach. In 2024 alone, our proactive measures helped prevent hundreds of potential cyberattacks while providing peace of mind to thousands of clients.”
FBI Report Findings Highlight Growing Dangers
- Cyber-enabled fraud: 83% of all losses reported in 2024 were due to internet-enabled fraudulent activities, such as theft of money, data, or identity, or the creation of counterfeit goods or services, totaling $13.7B in losses.
- Cyber threats: Malicious acts that seek to damage data, steal data, or disrupt digital life in general, including ransomware, viruses and malware, and data breaches, accounted for more than $1.5B in losses.
- Critical infrastructure threats: In 2024, 4,878 complaints were filed by critical infrastructure entities across critical manufacturing, healthcare, government facilities, financial services institutions, and more.
The FBI’s report emphasizes the shift of cybercriminals towards highly targeted, profit-driven operations, often focused on high-profile individuals, executives, and their families—those who BlackCloak specializes in protecting.
A Digital Lifeline in a Sea of Threats
BlackCloak has long led the industry with its ability to shield personal digital lives from intrusion, ensuring privacy and security for executives, high-net-worth individuals, and their families. BlackCloak has become a trusted ally both for its clients and the broader cybersecurity community, working cross-functionally with corporate teams, wealth managers, and family offices. The company’s holistic Digital Executive Protection platform and concierge security services directly align with the findings and recommendations in the IC3 report. The company offers a range of services and technologies designed to:
- Reduce individuals’ digital footprint: Minimizing the amount of personal information exposed online.
- Monitor clients’ personal devices and home networks for threats: Proactively identifying and mitigating potential cyber risks.
- Educate and train: Empowering executives and their families to make informed decisions about their online activities.
- Perform incident response: Rapidly addressing threats before they escalate into breaches of the enterprise.
The numbers don’t lie—cybercrime is an ever-growing menace, impacting businesses, families, and individuals alike. With its innovative digital executive protection services, BlackCloak empowers clients to fight back, reducing their exposure and ensuring that their most valuable assets—their personal lives and data—are kept safe.
For more information about BlackCloak and Digital Executive Protection, visit blackcloak.io.
About BlackCloak
BlackCloak protects corporate executives and high-profile individuals from cybersecurity, privacy, financial, and other reputational risks. Used by Fortune 500 companies across all industries, the BlackCloak Concierge Cybersecurity & Privacy™ Platform is a holistic solution that includes mobile and desktop apps and concierge support. Executives and high-profile individuals gain complete peace of mind knowing their family, reputation, and finances are secured. Companies rest assured that their brand, intellectual property, data, and finances are protected against threats from executives without invading their personal lives. Learn more at www.blackcloak.io, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Media Contact:
Mike Sias
New Study from Ponemon Institute Spotlights the Escalating Threat and Financial Impact of Deepfake Attacks on Businesses and Executives
Key Takeaways:
- A new Ponemon Institute survey of 586 U.S. security practitioners reveals that the most common deepfakes impersonate executives’ trusted entities and urgent demands for payments or information about a detected security breach.
- 54% of respondents said deepfakes are one of the most worrying uses of artificial intelligence (AI). In comparison, 42% said their executives and board members have been targeted at least once by a fake image or video.
- Survey participants identified the serious financial consequences of deepfakes and cybersecurity attacks on the company and executives as the costs for staff to respond to the attack, detect, identify, and remediate the breach, and recover the organization’s reputation.
- Respondents stated that their visibility into erroneous activity is poor, and they have low confidence that an executive could identify a deepfake attack that has targeted or is targeting them.
Orlando, FL – April 22, 2025—Ponemon Institute announced today a new research report, Deepfake Deception: How AI Harms the Fortunes and Reputation of Executives and Corporations. The report exposes the heightening threat of deepfake risks that target vulnerable business leaders and board members and the serious consequences of such attacks.
Sponsored by BlackCloak, a leader in Digital Executive Protection, the study, conducted independently by Ponemon, surveyed 586 security professionals in the U.S. who understand deepfake risks. More than half (54%) of respondents said that deepfakes are a top worry about AI uses, with slightly less (42%) reporting that a fake image or video has targeted their executives and board members. Furthermore, two-thirds (66%) said it is highly likely that a future deepfake will target their executives.
To protect business leaders from this emerging threat, 53% of survey participants said technologies that enable executives to verify the identity and authentication of messages they receive are critical.
“Our new study highlights a few concerning trends,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, Chairman of the Ponemon Institute. “More organizations are experiencing the impact of deepfake threats, an alarming use of AI that many expect to worsen in the months ahead. These attacks impact many aspects of business, and the costs to organizations are potentially significant.
“As personal attacks against executives and their family members increase, organizations are ill-equipped to combat such attacks. To address this issue, they are dedicating more resources to safeguard their leaders and prevent such threats,” he continued. “Most respondents said they will look to technologies that verify a sender’s identity and message authenticity to protect against this costly threat.”
Deepfakes and Personal Cyberattacks Require a Zero-Trust Mindset
The Ponemon study revealed a few crucial themes related to deepfakes and cyberattacks on businesses. Such themes include:
- Deepfake risks are targeting vulnerable board members and executives.
The two types of deepfakes of most significant concern are social impostors (53% of respondents) and financial fraud (37% of respondents). According to 56% of respondents, a zero-trust mindset is essential to distinguish between authentic and fake messages.
- Deepfakes and cybersecurity threats result in serious consequences.
The top two metrics for cyberattacks against executives are the cost of staff time (62% of respondents) and the cost to detect, identify, and remediate the breach (51% of respondents). - As attacks against executives and family members increase, organizations increase resources to prevent cyberattacks against executives.
48% of respondents said their organizations incorporate the risk of cyberthreats against executives in their personal lives, especially high-profile individuals, in their cyber, IT, and physical security strategies and budget. Additionally, 44% of organizations reported having a team dedicated to preventing and/or responding to cyber or privacy attacks against executives and their families. These numbers compare to 42% and 38%, respectively, just two years ago.
“Deepfakes are a growing threat costing businesses huge sums of money,” said Dr. Chris Pierson, Founder and CEO of BlackCloak. “Corporate executives are not typically cybersecurity experts, and are ill-equipped to take necessary steps to safeguard themselves and their families. Fortunately, new tools are coming to market that enable business leaders and their family members to verify the authenticity of messages they receive through all types of communications. These solutions can help stop the rising current of deepfake attacks by breaking the key links in the scam and help companies and their executives protect themselves and the bottom line.”
To download a copy of the Ponemon report, visit https://blackcloak.io/2025-ponemon-report-deepfake-deception/.
About Ponemon Institute
Advancing Responsible Information Management
Ponemon Institute is dedicated to independent research and education that advances responsible information and privacy management practices within business and government. Our mission is to conduct high-quality, empirical studies on critical issues affecting the management and security of sensitive information about people and organizations.
We uphold strict data confidentiality, privacy and ethical research standards. We do not collect any personally identifiable information from individuals (or company identifiable information in our business research). Furthermore, we have strict quality standards to ensure that subjects are not asked extraneous, irrelevant or improper questions. For more information, visit ponemon.org.
About BlackCloak
BlackCloak protects corporate executives and high-profile individuals from cybersecurity, privacy, financial, and other reputational risks. Used by Fortune 500 companies across all industries, the BlackCloak Concierge Cybersecurity & Privacy™ Platform is a holistic solution that includes mobile and desktop apps and concierge support. Executives and high-profile individuals gain complete peace of mind knowing their family, reputation, and finances are secured. Companies rest assured that their brand, intellectual property, data, and finances are protected against threats from executives without invading their personal lives. Learn more at www.blackcloak.io and follow us on LinkedIn.
Ponemon Media Contact
Susan Jayson
BlackCloak Launches Industry-First Identity Verification Solution to Combat Deepfake-Powered and Other Impersonation Attacks
New Feature is the Latest Innovation to BlackCoak’s Digital Executive Protection Technology Platform, Designed to Protect Organizations from AI-Generated Attacks Targeting Company Executives By Impersonating Their Trusted Contacts
Key Takeaways:
- The most common deepfakes are impersonation of executives’ trusted contacts, urgent demands for payments, virtual ransom incidents, and false information about a security or financial matter.
- 42% of respondents say their executives and board members have been targeted at least once by a fake image or video, according to a new 2025 report from the Ponemon Institute.
- BlackCloak’s new solution protects users against all scam and impersonation attacks, not just those that use AI or Deepfakes. It empowers users receiving a suspicious message, video, or phone call to verify the sender’s identity through the BlackCloak mobile app, ensuring content authenticity and preventing deepfakes and impersonation.
- The BlackCloak Identity Verification feature is part of the company’s industry-leading Digital Executive Protection solution.
Orlando, FL – April 22, 2025 – BlackCloak, the pioneer in Digital Executive Protection for executive leaders, board members, and their families as well as family offices and high-net-worth individuals, announced today its new Identity Verification solution. The new solution protects users from all types of impersonation and scam campaigns, including deepfake-powered attacks, targeting high-profile executives and individuals.
Leveraging AI and publicly available audio, video, and images, attackers create convincing fake videos and audio recordings of executives asking employees or family members to transfer funds or take other actions that compromise company assets or confidential data. BlackCloak’s new Identity Verification offering is the first to address this rapidly emerging cybersecurity issue by enabling customers who receive a suspicious email to verify the sender’s identity and ensure the message is authentic. The feature is part of the company’s industry-leading Digital Executive Protection (DEP) Framework, setting the standard for modern Digital Executive Protection.
Business leaders and individuals with significant net worth, including professional athletes and celebrities, face this growing threat. A recent report from the Ponemon Institute highlighted the escalating problem. The report, Deepfake Deception: How AI Harms the Fortunes and Reputation of Executives and Corporations, a survey of 586 IT and security practitioners in the U.S., revealed that 42 percent of respondents said their executives and board members had been targeted at least once by a fake image or video. Additionally, 66 percent of respondents said it is highly likely that a future deepfake will target their executives, while 53 percent said technologies that enable executives to verify the identity and authentication of messages they receive are highly important.
Furthermore, consulting firm Deloitte’s Center for Financial Services predicts that generative AI could enable fraud losses to reach $40 billion in the U.S. by 2027, representing a significantly pressing threat to individuals and corporations.
“The deepfake threat is real. And it’s costing businesses huge sums of money,” said Dr. Chris Pierson, Founder and CEO of BlackCloak. “Unfortunately, the cybersecurity industry to date has been unable to provide the necessary tools to detect and stop deepfakes targeting executives, as systems typically must be placed between the attacker and the target to analyze content. Because it’s impossible to monitor every communication channel within an organization, attackers target less protected avenues, like an executive’s personal phone or email.
“Our solution allows the recipient of a suspicious communication of any type to send an identity verification request directly to the sender using BlackCloak as their trusted intermediary,” said Matt Covington, Vice President of Product for BlackCloak. “This approach is the most effective way to find and stop such malicious content from causing significant financial damage. We’re excited to launch this critical solution as part of our expanding digital executive protection offering.”
BlackCloak Stops Fraud in its Tracks
BlackCloak’s new Identity Verification feature targets phishing campaigns, such as deepfakes, by allowing the user to prompt the sender to validate that they are who they claim to be through the BlackCloak mobile app. The new feature can combat the impact of deepfakes containing the following attributes:
- Synthetic Media: Created using artificial intelligence, particularly “deep learning” techniques, to generate realistic but fake audio, video, or images.
- Facial Manipulation: The ability to swap or mimic a target individual’s facial features, expressions, and movements with high accuracy.
- Voice Cloning: Replicates the tone, pitch, and style of a person’s voice, often combined with text-to-speech technology.
- Behavioral Mimicry: Imitates the target individual’s body language, gestures, and speaking style.
BlackCloak offers a comprehensive platform and services to safeguard executives and their families from online threats across every facet of their connected worlds — from smart devices and online accounts to home networks. Services include data broker removal, sophisticated privacy protections, and monitoring and safeguarding their devices, home networks, and smart home technology. Its bespoke solutions and around-the-clock expert care deliver peace of mind to clients in knowing their family, identity, reputation, and finances are secured.
To find out more about BlackCloak’s Identity Verification feature, visit https://blackcloak.io/identity-verification/.
About BlackCloak
BlackCloak protects corporate executives and high-profile individuals from cybersecurity, privacy, financial, and other reputational risks. Used by Fortune 500 companies across all industries, the BlackCloak Concierge Cybersecurity & Privacy™ Platform is a holistic solution that includes mobile and desktop apps and concierge support. Executives and high-profile individuals gain complete peace of mind knowing their family, reputation, and finances are secured. Companies rest assured that their brand, intellectual property, data, and finances are protected against threats from executives without invading their personal lives. Learn more at www.blackcloak.io and follow us on LinkedIn.
Media Contact:
Mike Sias
Tracey Moon
CMO
BlackCloak Honored as Finalist of the 2025 SC Awards
Orlando, FL, April 9, 2025 — BlackCloak is proud to announce that it has been named a finalist in the prestigious 2025 SC Awards. BlackCloak has been recognized in the Best Customer Service category, underscoring its commitment to excellence and leadership in the cybersecurity industry. The SC Awards, now in its 28th year, recognize the solutions, organizations, and individuals that have demonstrated outstanding achievement in advancing the security of information systems.
Find the full list of 2025 finalists on SC Media’s website: www.scworld.com/sc-awards
The 2025 SC Awards entries were evaluated across 33 specialty categories by a distinguished panel of judges, comprised of cybersecurity professionals, industry leaders, and members of the CyberRisk Alliance CISO community, representing sectors such as healthcare, financial services, education, and technology.
“From the rise of generative AI attacks to breaches exploiting third-party access and non-human credentials, the past year has reminded us that cybersecurity needs to be about innovations that help enterprises pivot, adapt, and thrive in a threat landscape that changes by the hour,” said Tom Spring, Senior Editorial Director, SC Media.
“Being named an SC Awards finalist is a recognition not only of technical innovation, but of a shared commitment to making the digital world safer,” Spring said. “It’s inspiring to see how this year’s community of finalists—across identity, cloud, data protection, and beyond—is pushing forward together, united by purpose.”
“It is a tremendous honor to be recognized by such a prestigious award, particularly for delivering outstanding service and cybersecurity and privacy expertise to our customers,” said Ingrid Gliottone, Chief Experience Officer for BlackCloak. “Our goal is to help companies protect their executives’ digital personal lives, and provide peace of mind to high-profile and high-net-worth individuals, through 24/7 white-glove concierge security services that safeguard our clients and their families from online threats. This award validates our continuous commitment to achieving this goal.”
Throughout the month, SC Media’s editorial team will feature in-depth coverage of each finalist on SC Media’s website at www.scworld.com/sc-awards, along with promoting finalists across SC Media’s social media channels on LinkedIn and Twitter.
About CyberRisk Alliance (CRA)
CyberRisk Alliance provides business intelligence that helps the cybersecurity ecosystem connect, share knowledge, accelerate careers, and make smarter and faster decisions. Through our trusted information brands, network of experts, and more than 250 innovative annual events we provide cybersecurity professionals with actionable insights and act as a powerful extension of cybersecurity marketing teams. Our brands include SC Media, the Official Cybersecurity Summits, Security Weekly, InfoSec World, Identiverse, CyberRisk Collaborative, ChannelE2E, MSSP Alert, LaunchTech Communications, TECHEXPO Top Secret and CyberRisk TV.
Learn more at www.cyberriskalliance.com.
About BlackCloak
BlackCloak protects corporate executives and high-profile individuals from cybersecurity, privacy, financial, and other reputational risks. Used by Fortune 500 companies across all industries, the BlackCloak Concierge Cybersecurity & Privacy™ Platform is a holistic solution that includes mobile and desktop apps and concierge support. Executives and high-profile individuals gain complete peace of mind knowing their family, reputation, and finances are secured. Companies rest assured that their brand, intellectual property, data, and finances are protected against threats from executives without invading their personal lives. Learn more at www.blackcloak.io, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Media Contact:
Mike Sias
[email protected]
