Ignore Cyber. Lose Customers

Why modern business failures start with broken trust

For most of business history, risk was easy to see.

You dealt with people you knew. Payments were approved by familiar faces. Contracts were signed in person. Trust was built over time through reputation and repeat dealings. When fraud happened, it was usually obvious and limited.

Business controls matched that world.

Someone checked the invoice. Someone approved the payment. Verification happened before money moved. Customers trusted businesses because transactions felt careful and accountable.

That world is gone.

Today business runs on speed. Payments move in seconds. Customers interact through online accounts. Suppliers connect through shared systems. Decisions increasingly happen automatically, not face to face.

As a result, business risk has shifted.

It is no longer about hackers breaking in.
It is about someone convincingly pretending to be trusted.

Most modern fraud looks normal. A real account changes payment details. A familiar voice asks for an urgent transfer. An approved process releases funds. By the time anyone notices, the money is gone and confidence is damaged.

This is not a technology failure.
It is a trust failure.

A recent example shows how real this has become.

In a June 22 2025 article in The Globe and Mail, consumer affairs reporter Mariya Postelnyak described how scammers used AI generated videos to impersonate well known Canadian finance leaders including Brian Belski, chief investment strategist at Bank of Montreal, and economist David Rosenberg.

Fake ads and videos using their faces and voices directed victims into WhatsApp investment groups. Investors believed they were receiving legitimate advice from trusted experts. In reality, the trades were manipulated and once more money was invested, the values collapsed. According to Mr. Rosenberg, reported losses tied to the scam exceeded $1 million before the content could be taken down.

Nothing was hacked.
No systems were breached.
Trust was simply abused.

“Most businesses are not losing money because they were hacked.
They are losing money because they trusted the wrong transaction.”
— Francois Guay, CEO, Canadian Cybersecurity Network

That is the shift leaders must understand.

Many organizations still believe that if a login looks valid or a request comes from the right name, it must be safe. In reality, the most damaging losses now occur through approved accounts and routine processes operating faster than human judgment.

And the damage does not stop with money.

Customers lose confidence. Banks ask questions. Regulators get involved. Brands suffer. What starts as a single transaction failure quickly becomes a business credibility problem.

Automation has made companies faster and more efficient. It has also made mistakes more expensive.

Authority now lives inside systems. Software can move money, change records, approve actions, and act on behalf of your business. If authority is not clearly defined and verified at the right moments, it becomes an open door.

This is where many small and mid sized businesses are most exposed.

They trust speed.
They trust familiar processes.
They trust that technology alone will protect them.

But attackers exploit trust, not technology. They copy voices, faces, and messages. They rely on urgency and familiarity. And they succeed because verification is missing where it matters most.

Three realities now define business risk.

People can be impersonated easily.
Trusted accounts can be abused quickly.
Most losses happen before anyone realizes something is wrong.

This is why identity and approval controls are no longer just an IT issue. They decide who can move money, change data, or trigger automated actions. That makes them a core business responsibility.

The businesses that succeed will be the ones that slow down the right moments, add checks where money or reputation is at stake, and clearly define who is allowed to act.

Because when authority is unclear, someone else will use it.

For a more detailed look at Deepfakes, check out our recent intelligence series here.