Deepfakes impersonate U.S. officials in security incidents
Deepfake AI systems have been used to impersonate U.S. government officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and chief of staff Susie Wiles through text, voice and messaging app communications, reportedly to extract sensitive information or gain unauthorized access. Criminal groups and hackers associated with North Korea have also targeted corporate executives and used job candidate impersonation to breach business systems.
What happened
This summer, someone used AI to create a deepfake of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an attempt to reach out to foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor over text, voice mail and the Signal messaging app. In May someone impersonated Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Another phony Rubio had popped up in a deepfake earlier this year, saying he wanted to cut off Ukraine's access to Elon Musk's Starlink internet service.
Criminal gangs and hackers associated with adversaries including North Korea use synthetic video and audio to impersonate CEOs and low-level job candidates to gain access to critical systems or business secrets.
Reported impact
The national security implications are huge: People who think they're chatting with Rubio or Wiles, for instance, might discuss sensitive information about diplomatic negotiations or military strategy. Possible motivations include attempts to extract sensitive secrets or competitive information or to gain access to an email server or other sensitive network.
Index analysis
Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, creating realistic deepfakes is easier than ever, causing security problems for governments, businesses and private individuals.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.