Basic Concept: Advances in AI generative technology have enabled the creation of highly realistic synthetic video and audio content that convincingly impersonates real individuals. These AI-generated impersonations are called deepfakes and represent a significant threat for corporate fraud, misinformation, and social engineering. CompTIA SecAI+ covers deepfakes under basic AI concepts and cybersecurity threats.

Why C is Correct: The scenario describes a video in which the CEO ' s likeness was convincingly replicated to deliver a false message about bankruptcy. This is a textbook deepfake attack — AI-generated synthetic media using the target ' s face and potentially voice to make it appear they said something they never said. Deepfake technology uses GANs and CNNs to create this type of convincing impersonation, and the attack specifically exploited AI generation for deception.

Why A is Wrong: An on-path attack intercepts network communications between two parties to eavesdrop or modify traffic. It requires positioning in the network path, not creating synthetic media of a person ' s likeness.

Why B is Wrong: Phishing is a social engineering attack that uses deceptive messages typically via email to trick recipients into taking harmful actions such as clicking malicious links or providing credentials. While this attack has social engineering elements, the use of AI-generated video to impersonate the CEO specifically categorizes it as a deepfake attack.

Why D is Wrong: Social engineering broadly describes psychological manipulation tactics to deceive individuals. While deepfakes can be used as part of social engineering campaigns, the specific technical technique used — AI-generated synthetic video — makes deepfake the most precise and accurate categorization.