Our Take
This is a prediction, not a market signal; Gartner offers no evidence that TrustOps adoption is underway or accelerating today.
Why it matters
Government agencies face real deepfake risks to election integrity, personnel security, and public trust. The 2028 forecast suggests institutional response is coming, but procurement cycles and budget constraints will determine whether the prediction holds.
Do this week
Security teams in government: audit your current media authentication and personnel verification workflows this month to identify gaps that a TrustOps mandate would need to fill.
Gartner's TrustOps forecast
Gartner predicts that 40% of government organizations will establish dedicated "TrustOps" teams to counter deepfake and synthetic media threats by 2028 (per Gartner's analyst note). The firm frames TrustOps as a specialized operational practice focused on detecting, responding to, and mitigating deepfake attacks.
The prediction covers government agencies across federal, state, and local levels. No breakdown by agency type, size, or threat maturity is provided in the available excerpt.
The real deadline is now, not 2028
Deepfake technology is not a 2028 problem. Synthetic video and audio are already being weaponized in social engineering, election disinformation, and fraud scenarios. The gap between threat velocity and organizational readiness is widening, not closing.
A 40% adoption rate by 2028 also implies 60% of government organizations will not have a formal TrustOps practice in place. For critical infrastructure, voting systems, and personnel vetting, that lag carries operational and political risk. Gartner's forecast may be optimistic; bureaucratic procurement timelines often move slower than security threats.
What to do this quarter
Government IT and security leaders should not wait for a formal TrustOps program to mature. Start now: inventory your organization's current media authentication capabilities (facial recognition, voice verification, metadata analysis). Identify which systems or processes rely on unverified visual or audio evidence. Prioritize those for upgrades or third-party integration before 2025 budget cycles close.
For vendors selling into government: this forecast signals demand but does not quantify it. Gartner's prediction is useful as a planning signal, not as a market size estimate.