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Build vs. Buy for Deepfake Defense in IDV

Overview

Most teams underestimate the "run" costs of building internal deepfake detection. One major IDV platform spent 6 months building a model, only for it to be bypassed in a test by a client using a new attack vector just 2 weeks after deployment. Building costs €745K-€1.5M over 12-24 months, requiring 10+ engineers, continuous data acquisition, and drift monitoring every 2-4 weeks. Buying delivers production-ready detection in 4-8 weeks with at least 4-6x cost savings and automatic updates against new attack methods.

Why it matters

The fastest path is a shadow-mode pilot

For identity verification leaders evaluating build versus buy, short pilots de-risk decisions before long-term commitments. This guide helps product, engineering, and risk teams assess whether they can realistically ship, maintain, and update detection, or partner externally.

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Key Takeaways

1.5Mn+

Total build cost over 12-24 months

Headcount (€480K-€960K), data acquisition (€80K-€150K), infrastructure (€40K-€90K), red-teaming (€100K-€210K), and compliance (€45K-€80K).

4 to 6x

At least 4-6x cost savings with vendor solutions

Predictable costs, contractual SLAs for recall and latency, and built-in compliance versus variable hidden "run" costs.

18 to 24

Months to ship internal detection versus 4-8 weeks

Building requires discovery, hiring, data pipelines, model training, evaluation, hardening, and rollout—buying integrates in weeks.

>10+

Team members required for internal build

ML engineers, data engineers, MLOps, and threat researchers needed on-call for continuous model governance.

Explore Key Findings

If you tick 7+ criteria in the sanity scan, vendor integration likely delivers faster protection and lower total cost than an 18-24 month internal build.

Building requires 10+ specialists for ML engineering, data pipelines, and threat research

Data acquisition costs €80K-€150K for labeled samples across attack types

Red-teaming costs €100K-€210K to simulate realistic attacker behavior

Compliance audits cost €45K-€80K for explainability and regulatory alignment

Drift monitoring every 2-4 weeks required to maintain detection accuracy

Buying delivers breadth and freshness with pre-trained coverage and automatic updates

Run the sanity scan first

This guide includes cost comparison tables, a 7-point readiness checklist, quality KPI benchmarks (FAR, spoof success rate, latency, coverage), and a 4-step evaluation plan: stack audit, optional dataset benchmark, shadow-mode pilot, and integration. Access the framework product and risk leaders use to de-risk build versus buy decisions.

+5 more

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Build vs. Buy for Deepfake Defense in IDV

The fastest path is a shadow-mode pilot

Key Takeaways

Explore Key Findings

Building requires 10+ specialists for ML engineering, data pipelines, and threat research

Data acquisition costs €80K-€150K for labeled samples across attack types

Red-teaming costs €100K-€210K to simulate realistic attacker behavior

Compliance audits cost €45K-€80K for explainability and regulatory alignment

Drift monitoring every 2-4 weeks required to maintain detection accuracy

Buying delivers breadth and freshness with pre-trained coverage and automatic updates

Run the sanity scan first

More Whitepapers to explore

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