Separating Fiction from Reality: Superman was framed using a deepfake, could CEOs be next?

Boards remain disciplined about physical assets, regulatory compliance, and financial disclosures. But the risk that’s moved to the top of the pyramid—quietly and quickly—is synthetic media. According to the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2025, “misinformation and disinformation” rank as the top short‑term global threat—for the second consecutive year—surpassing cyber‑attacks, inflation, and sovereign debt crises.

Meanwhile, nearly 90 % of S&P 500 market value now lies in intangible assets—brand, data, IP. When trust collapses, those assets vanish much faster than any communications team can draft a rebuttal.

India has already seen early tremors. Kerala’s cybercrime wing reports having removed over 1,000 deepfake investment videos in the past 12 months, many featuring doctored footage of public figures. And in June 2025, a synthetic video impersonating the CEO of a stock exchange surfaced, promoting an “income doubling” trading app—prompting an exchange-wide warning.

The regulatory clock is ticking

For India’s conglomerates, governance exposure has never been sharper.

SEBI’s 24‑hour market rumour rule already requires the top 100 listed companies to confirm, deny, or clarify mainstream‑media rumours. From December 2025, this will extend to the top 250. A doctored video of your CFO mis‑announcing earnings will trigger a compliance clock with real consequences.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 empowers the Data Protection Board to impose penalties of up to ₹250 crore for breaches in “reasonable safeguards.” A synthetic video leveraging leaked HR or KYC footage could arguably breach that bar.

Cyber insurers have also responded. Mumbai brokers now levy 10–15 % premium surcharges on firms without demonstrable deepfake mitigation—such as watermarking or red‑team testing.

Superman survives because the Daily Planet still verifies

In the film, it isn’t strength but journalistic integrity that saves Superman. The Daily Planet investigates, double‑sources, and exposes the forgery before the public fully turns. That lesson matters to boards.

Every conglomerate needs its own “truth desk”—a dedicated team blending cyber forensics and communication strategists, empowered to publish verifiable counter‑narratives within a news cycle.

Provenance must be operational: leadership videos, investor presentations, and brand films should carry cryptographic watermarking like C2PA. Disproving a fake must be a hyperlink, not a week‑long forensic process.

And just as fire drills are standard board risks, so must be quarterly deepfake red‑team exercises. Imagine an external firm cloning your CFO on Zoom—simulate it, and brief the board on gaps.

This is not cybersecurity theatre. The financial, regulatory, and reputational risk is real, quantifiable, and accelerating.

A few hard questions boards and regulators must ask

* Do we have a comprehensive catalogue of every publicly‑available leadership video?

* Could we issue a fact‑checked holding statement within 90 minutes if a synthetic video appeared tonight?

* Which committee owns rapid misinformation response under SEBI’s LODR?

* Have we disclosed to investors how we assess reputational value‑at‑risk (R‑VaR)?

The challenge in many Indian boardrooms is not merely technical unpreparedness. It is cultural reticence. Independent directors appear hesitant to press too far for fear of being labelled alarmist or disloyal. Risk committees often treat deepfakes as a communications inconvenience rather than a board-level existential threat. And when the threat does arrive, boards may find their response slowed by internal caution, reputational anxiety, and procedural hesitations.

Collective defence, too, is indispensable. Industry alliances—among exchanges, chambers, and regulators—can share threat intelligence and forensic support. And just as financial disclosures include assessments of material risks, so should annual reports disclose reputational value at risk, affirming to investors that boards understand and price the danger.

Trust that can’t be faked

Clark Kent’s glasses fooled a trusting public in 1938 because deception was rare. In 2025, deception is a service—downloadable, believable, and scalable. The only boardroom asset more valuable than brand equity is verified reality.

Reputation today isn’t something you earn and then protect—it’s something you engineer: cryptographically, procedurally, and culturally. Boards that understand this will insulate their enterprises not only from risk, but from irrelevance.

When the next hologram airs—whether it shows your CFO mis‑announcing a merger or your founder endorsing a scam—will your conglomerate respond like Superman or be caught waiting for legal to approve a press note?

Those who can respond with verifiable proof — as fast as the rumour spreads — will command the only true superpower that matters on Dalal Street: trust that can’t be faked.

(Malek Shipchandler advises corporates on the architecture of trust, reputation governance, and narrative strategy across complex, high-stakes, and transformative corporate occurrences – shaping how they are understood by investors, regulators, and other critical stakeholders.)

Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.