Reality Defender and Illuma Partner to Deliver Next-Generation Voice Security for Financial Services

Strategic partnership adds Reality Defender’s deepfake detection as an additional layer within IllumaSHIELD™, strengthening protection against AI-driven voice attacks.

NEW YORK / PLANO, TX — Reality Defender, the RSAC Innovation award-winning deepfake detection platform, and Illuma, the leader in voice security, today announced a strategic technology partnership to deliver comprehensive voice security across the financial services industry.

Through this collaboration, Reality Defender’s real-time deepfake detection technology will be integrated into Illuma’s IllumaSHIELD™ Voice Security platform, adding an additional layer of synthetic audio detection technology to Illuma’s existing authentication, fraud defense, and AI-driven voice security capabilities. The integration enables financial institutions to further strengthen their defenses against AI-generated voice impersonation and other evolving voice-based threats.

IllumaSHIELD™ provides layered voice security by combining passive voice authentication, real-time fraud detection, collaborative intelligence, and adaptive multi-factor authentication to secure contact center conversations. By integrating with IllumaSHIELD™, Reality Defender provides an additional layer of analysis further strengthening the IllumaSHIELD™ platform against  AI-generated or cloned audio as synthesis techniques continue to evolve.

“The financial services industry needs voice security built for the AI era, not retrofitted for it,” said Ben Colman, Co-Founder and CEO of Reality Defender. “By integrating our deepfake detection directly into IllumaSHIELD, we’re delivering a solution that addresses the full spectrum of voice channel threats in real time.”

As AI-generated voices become increasingly convincing, financial institutions must adopt layered security approaches capable of verifying both caller identity and the authenticity of the voice itself. IllumaSHIELD™ analyzes unique vocal characteristics in real time to verify legitimate callers without interrupting the conversation, while its fraud defense capabilities monitor behavioral patterns, call activity, and risk signals to detect social engineering and AI-driven activity. The addition of Reality Defender’s deepfake detection technology further enhances this multi-layered defense.

“In an era of rapidly evolving deepfake technology, financial institutions need voice security platforms that continuously advance ahead of new threats,” said Milind Borkar, Founder and CEO of Illuma. “Through a combination of internal technology investment and strategic partnerships like Reality Defender, we are delivering best-in-class protection for our clients against the ever evolving AI threat landscape. The combined protection from Illuma’s authentication, fraud defense, and deepfake detection capabilities—paired with Reality Defender’s technology—ensures the highest level of voice security in the industry.”

The combined offering is available immediately to financial institutions of all sizes.