BlackCloak members can now invite anyone they rely on into a verified circle of trust inside Impersonation Protection, from the private banker to the person who walks the dogs. This Brand Spotlight includes a live walkthrough of a verification request being sent and answered.
Matt Covington, Senior Vice President of Product at BlackCloak, says the feature exists because CISOs kept asking the same question. Can you help us manage this influx of deepfake media, whether it arrives by email, video, or voicemail. The requests that follow are familiar. Change the billing information on a vendor. Wire me $5,000 to bail me out of jail.
Rather than sitting in line with every communication to judge whether a piece of video or audio is fake, BlackCloak gives people a way to establish the authenticity of the message and the sender. Matt Covington walks through it on camera. A suspicious guest joins a Zoom call under a familiar name, camera off. He opens the app, creates a request, selects the medium, adds context, and submits. Biometrics confirm the device owner. The response comes back with identity confirmed and location attached, and the app keeps an audit trail.
The news this week is who can be in the circle. A BlackCloak member can invite as many people as they want to connect as part of their trusted network. Personal lawyer, private banker, childcare, dog walker. Matt Covington describes a message arriving on vacation, claiming to be the dog walker and asking for $5,000 for an emergency vet bill, and confirms that scenario is a real thing that has happened. Tracey Moon, Chief Marketing Officer at BlackCloak, joins for the demo.
This is a Brand Spotlight. A Brand Spotlight is a ~15 minute conversation designed to explore the guest, their company, and what makes their approach unique. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#spotlight
GUESTS
Matt Covington, Senior Vice President of Product, BlackCloak
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mecovington/
Tracey Moon, Chief Marketing Officer, BlackCloak
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceymoon/
RESOURCES
BlackCloak: https://blackcloak.io/
BlackCloak Extends Deepfake Protection to the Executive's Entire Trusted Circle: https://blackcloak.io/news-media/blackcloak-extends-deepfake-protection-to-the-executives-entire-trusted-circle/
BlackCloak Product Overview: https://blackcloak.io/product/
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KEYWORDS
matt covington, tracey moon, blackcloak, sean martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand spotlight, black hat usa 2026, impersonation protection, circle of trust, deepfake, digital executive protection, identity verification, social engineering, executive protection, wire fraud
Executives Can Now Invite Their Lawyer, Banker, and Dog Walker Into a Verified Circle of Trust | A Brand Spotlight Recorded On Location at Black Hat USA 2026 with Matt Covington and Tracey Moon of BlackCloak | Hosted by Sean Martin
[00:00:19] Sean Martin: So as I stand here, I feel like a man in the middle.
[00:00:43] Matt Covington: Yes. There's a reason for that, Sean.
[00:00:46] Sean Martin: So somehow, uh, I think, I think I'll be the man in the middle kind of guiding you. So you're gonna do all the talking, but uh,
[00:00:52] Matt Covington: absolutely.
[00:00:53] Sean Martin: So we did a short demo of, of, uh, impersonation, right?
[00:00:57] Matt Covington: Yep. Absolutely.
[00:00:58] Sean Martin: People
[00:00:59] Matt Covington: are being
[00:00:59] Sean Martin: impersonated here. Uh, new feature in the BlackCloak app.
[00:01:03] Matt Covington: That's right.
[00:01:03] Sean Martin: And, uh. So we're gonna, we didn't get to show the, the back and forth exchange
[00:01:09] Matt Covington: Yes. With
[00:01:09] Sean Martin: people yesterday.
[00:01:10] Matt Covington: We're, do the full, full experience today.
[00:01:12] Sean Martin: Alright. So first off, give an overview of why this feature exists. Yeah. And then we'll, uh, get into the demo.
[00:01:19] Matt Covington: So the, the feature exists because it was a question we were getting a lot from CISOs, right? Can you help us manage this influx of deepfake media we're seeing, whether it's via email or increasingly videos or voicemails, we're seeing this barrage of content of people impersonating executives. Asking our staff members to do things that are fundamentally not good, right? Whether it's change the billing information attached to one of our vendors, wire me $5,000 to bail me outta jail, whatever it happened to be. Um, what can we do to help? And we thought there was really a unique, uh, opportunity because we have a point of presence on the executive's device because we are trusted by those executives.
[00:02:05] Sean Martin: We already know.
[00:02:05] Matt Covington: Exactly. We had a unique opportunity to do something a bit. Different. So rather than trying to sit in line with every communication to detect whether a piece of video or a piece of audio is a deepfake, we wanted to do something different, which was to give people a way to establish the authenticity of the message, uh, and the message's sender. And so let's say, for example, I'm sitting on a Zoom call. I see somebody join the Zoom call, it says Tracey Moon. She's not on camera. The voice sounds a little suspicious. And so I need to verify that that is actually Tracey. And so using the impersonation protection feature, because Tracey and I are already connected, I can go to Impersonation Protection. She's
[00:02:49] Sean Martin: in your circle of trust.
[00:02:50] Matt Covington: She is in my circle of trust, always Tracey. Uh uh, and so what we're able to do is I'm able to go to the BlackCloak application. I can go ahead and create a new request. And so what I'm doing is I'm finding Tracey in my, uh, address book. And so we are, I can say Tracey Moon. Okay. And we're sitting on a video conference. And so again, and select videos. We're setting the contents and I'm gonna say, is this you? Right? And so I can add a little. Personalized message here to set the context. And so when that's done, I'm simply going to click, uh, submit and once that's submitted, and so it's, you can see that was doing a biometrics, it's gonna verify that I am the, uh, owner of this device. And then what happen is we will send the message to Tracey's phone. And while we're waiting for Tracey, you can see we have impersonation protection requests that's been sent.
[00:03:45] Sean Martin: Little notification. All right. Yep. So you repeat that so people
[00:03:49] Matt Covington: can hear it. Yeah, exactly. And I received the notification on my device telling me that Tracey Moon, uh, who is in Las Vegas, Nevada, who has uh, very, uh, identity has been confirmed by biometrics, and she has. Basically giving me enough information to say, yes, that is an authentic request. It was sent by, uh, Tracey.
[00:04:10] Sean Martin: Yes, you can work.
[00:04:11] Matt Covington: Absolutely. And you can see in the app we have an audit trail. Okay. Of all of the people, um, that I corresponded with using this. But I think the big news that we have, uh, this week. Is that with impersonation protection as a BlackCloak member, you can invite as many people as you want to connect with you as part of your trusted network as part of your circle of trust inside impersonation protection. So what does that mean? It means my personal lawyer, my private banker, which I definitely need because I'm so wealthy. Uh, childcare, the person who walks my dogs, right? I can send invites to all of those people. They can get set up on the app proactively so that let's say I'm on vacation, I get a suspicious message saying, Hey, it's your dog walker. I need you to wire me $5,000 for the Emergency vet bill. Right? We have a way to verify the authenticity of that transaction because I was able to add. Everyone in my network to my circle of trust.
[00:05:09] Sean Martin: So many stories.
[00:05:11] Matt Covington: So many, absolutely. Yes.
[00:05:13] Sean Martin: Dog walker wanting five grand for an emergency
[00:05:16] Matt Covington: gun, a real, a real thing that has happened. I think.
[00:05:19] Sean Martin: Probably do.
[00:05:20] Matt Covington: Yeah,
[00:05:20] Sean Martin: absolutely. Save the dog. Save the dog.
[00:05:22] Matt Covington: Yeah.
[00:05:22] Sean Martin: Oh my goodness. Well, I, I love this story. Of course. We all know I'm a huge fan of
[00:05:28] Matt Covington: flying the flag. We appreciate that. Sean,
[00:05:30] Sean Martin: uh, Chris Pierson, your founder and CEO and amazing guy doing amazing things, built a great team around him and I'm excited for this launch.
[00:05:38] Matt Covington: Yeah, thanks you very much. We're excited as well.
[00:05:41] Sean Martin: So join your own circle and create your own circle of trust, I should say.
[00:05:45] Matt Covington: Absolutely,
[00:05:45] Sean Martin: yes. Connect with, uh, the team, BlackCloak. Connect with Chris Connect that. Wow. Tracey, even though she didn't have a mic, she did, said some very important things. Um, and yeah, I think BlackCloak, a great, great team doing great things. Connect those folks and, uh, have some fun.
[00:06:05] Matt Covington: Thanks very much.