Tom Cross Joins GetReal to Expand Security Threat Research Capabilities

Cross teams with preeminent digital forensics pioneer Dr. Hany Farid and investigative expert Emmanuelle Saliba to form a first-of-its-kind research triad to fight malicious digital media

SAN MATEO, Calif., July 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- GetReal Security, a cybersecurity leader specializing in the detection and mitigation of threats posed by malicious generative AI (GenAI) content, announced it has hired veteran security researcher Tom Cross as its new Head of Threat Research. The new GetReal Threat Research team, focused on threat intelligence and GenAI adversarial thinking, will productize the combined insights from GetReal Labs, led by co-founder Dr. Hany Farid, and GetReal's Incident Response team, led by Chief Investigative Officer Emmanuelle Saliba. GetReal's approach to detection, mitigation and response to synthetic digital content is designed to proactively address AI-powered social engineering attacks that impersonate employees, executives and business partners.

"In this new era of cyber threats, anything can be weaponized – name, image, likeness, static photos, real-time video streams – all of which require a unified platform and the ability to reverse engineer synthetic digital content to best protect enterprise and government organizations," said Matt Moynahan, CEO of GetReal. "Our approach goes beyond identifying real versus fake content. Our team of experts, including Hany Farid, Emmanuelle Saliba and Tom Cross, allows us to provide customers a unique and powerful combination of digital forensics, threat intelligence and investigative excellence that will keep our customers a step ahead of adversaries."

Cross brings decades of cybersecurity experience to GetReal, where he will be responsible for building threat intelligence capabilities to track and monitor how threat actors are leveraging GenAI and deceptive digital media. Cross has previously held leadership positions at Kopidion, Drawbridge Networks, Lancope and the IBM Internet Security Systems X-Force Advanced Research team.

"GenAI has given threat actors powerful new capabilities to create compelling social engineering attacks that target both enterprises and consumers," said Cross. "AI is enabling threat actors with limited technical skills to 'vibe code' their way to fully automated attacks at scale, with highly personalized and targeted deceptions. This truly is a new frontier in cybersecurity, and we'll need to combine new technical disciplines in order to combat these threats."

Saliba most recently served as Senior Reporter for ABC News, where she led the network's coverage on GenAI and helped audiences understand harmful uses of the technology. She joined GetReal in January, bringing more than a decade of deep expertise in online investigations as an early trailblazer in social verification. Saliba leads GetReal Respond, a service that can offer on-demand expertise and attestation, providing the highest assurance and evidence for incidents requiring non-repudiation.

"These new threats are multi-faceted and constantly evolving, which is why each incident requires a multidisciplinary approach. We combine experts and skills from forensic research, machine learning, human investigation and open-source intelligence to each case that we take on," said Saliba.

This expanded threat research capability complements GetReal's broader mission to equip organizations with proactive defense tools against synthetic media threats. As part of that mission, GetReal was recently selected by Google to support its SynthID ecosystem initiative, bringing watermark detection into its content verification platform. By combining threat intelligence, advanced forensics and SynthID's AI-generated content detection across formats like video, audio and images, GetReal gives enterprises and governments the ability to verify content at scale and respond quickly to emerging threats. These integrated capabilities help protect critical operations, from executive identity protection to fraud prevention in hiring and communications.

About GetReal Security
GetReal Security is the cybersecurity leader specializing in the detection and mitigation of threats posed by malicious generative AI content, including deepfakes and impersonation attacks. Its technology serves multinational corporations, financial institutions, media organizations, government agencies and social media companies. The company was incubated by Ballistic Ventures, the venture capital firm dedicated exclusively to funding and incubating entrepreneurs and innovations in cybersecurity, and Dr. Hany Farid, the preeminent expert in media forensics. For more information about GetReal Security, visit the website and follow the company on LinkedIn.

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SOURCE GetReal Security