Persona powers up its IDV solution as deepfake workplace fraud surges

Persona has unveiled a major update to its Workforce Identity Verification (IDV) solution.

The upgraded offering bolsters defenses against the dramatic rise in candidate fraud, AI-driven impersonation and deepfake attacks across the employee lifecycle, from recruitment to offboarding.

These are serious problems for organizations. Last year, Persona blocked more than 75 million AI-based face spoofing attempts across its platform, which serves technology companies such as OpenAI, Coursera, Instacart and Twilio.

Persona has seen a 50-fold increase in deepfakes over recent years, with attackers using ever more sophisticated techniques. “The North Korean IT worker threat is real,” said Rick Song, CEO and co-founder of Persona, in an interview with VentureBeat.

“But it’s not just North Korea. A lot of foreign actors are all doing things like this right now in terms of finding ways to infiltrate organizations. The insider threat for businesses is higher than ever.”

Predictions and reports underline the threat. An April 2025 Gartner report predicts that by 2028, one in four globally submitted candidate profiles will be fake. As remote and distributed workforces become commonplace, organizations face growing risks from identity-based attacks. Recent data from Cisco Splunk shows that 98 percent of cyberattacks rely on social engineering tactics.

Glider AI, based out of Cupertino, California, has research showing a 92 percent increase in candidate fraud compared to pre-pandemic levels. The firm’s CEO, Satish Kumar, says that’s “more than just a compliance issue – it’s a security crisis.”

Song, Persona’s CEO, says: “State-sponsored actors and generative AI are making impersonation easier than ever. Our new features give enterprises the confidence that every access attempt ties back to a real, verified individual.”

Persona’s Workforce IDV embeds real-world identity checks at critical moments such as hiring, onboarding, or account recovery, using selfie-to-ID matching, liveness detection and device-behavioral signals to detect and block synthetic identities before they infiltrate corporate systems.

Job recruitment fraud is a complex problem. AI-generated resumes are a common approach, as a deep dive by Daon explores. “These documents are crafted by algorithms to perfectly match job descriptions while remaining undetectable to automated screening systems,” the post says.

“The resumes often include fabricated work experiences tailored to specific company requirements, complete with plausible responsibilities and achievements.”

In other cases, fraudsters create synthetic identities that blend real and fabricated personal information, making background checks ineffective.

To help enterprises harden their Zero Trust security without disrupting user experience, Persona has deepened its integrations with leading Identity and Access Management and HR platforms.

In addition to its existing Okta Workforce Identity Cloud integration, the company now offers native support for Cisco Duo, embedding high-assurance IDV directly into login and authentication workflows. Organizations using Okta or Cisco’s identity management platforms can integrate Persona’s screening tools in as little as 30 minutes to an hour.

Expanded HRIS integrations enable human resources teams to synchronize verified identity data, streamline onboarding and accelerate time-to-productivity for new hires, according to Persona.

The solution supports government ID verification in over 200 countries and more than 20 languages, dynamically adjusting to real-time risk to balance security with user convenience.

Article Topics

AI fraud  |  biometrics  |  deepfake detection  |  identity verification  |  Persona  |  selfie biometrics