High
Fake
The more synthetic media is perceived to be legitimate and authoritative, the content is more likely to be trusted, persuasive, and acted upon.
Synthetic media can range from non-interactive, not ongoing, or not consistent (low) to interactive, ongoing, and consistent (high).
Synthetic media can range from very recognizable and familiar (high) or hardly (or not) recognizable and familiar (low).
Synthetic media can range from evoking a significant affective response (high) to barely or not at all eliciting an affective reaction.
Synthetic media can range from broadcast to a wide human audience or technical security measures (high) to a narrow, specific human audience or tailored technical security measure (low).
Deepfake technology intentionally using the likeness of famous and/or credible authorities in an effort to shape the behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and/or emotions of the target audience
Voice Heists are a form of deepfake audio attack. In particular, it is the use of artificial intelligence to manipulate or create audio, cloning the voice(s) of legitimate individuals, often company executives. The voice clone is then used to trick companies, banks or other organizations to transfer funds to accounts controlled by the deepfake attacker.
Information, especially of a biased, misleading or non-rational nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view
The media is intended to serve as a catalyst for political argument, discord and divisiveness.
Content created to serve an information or psychological operation purpose.
Influence operations, also known as information operations or psychological operations, are strategic approaches used to shape the perceptions, decisions, and behaviors of target audiences to achieve specific objectives.
Intentional strategy and tactics meant to mislead, misdirect and manipulate the perceptions of a target audience through simulation (showing the false) and/or dissimulation (hiding the real)
The tendency to seek information that confirms or supports a predetermined position or conclusion.
Tendency to comply with authority figures (usually legal or expert authorities). Exploitable by assuming the persona or impersonating an authority figure.
Perceived shared identity based on similarity in a trait, affiliation, or belief. This can be a powerful influence tactic as people tend to be more open to persuasion by someone they identify with.
Technique that attempts to implant a false memory in the target through suggestion.
A feeling of dissatisfaction with one’s situation or circumstances. May be leveraged by an attacker by offering a path toward resolving the source disgruntlement as a means of manipulating the target.
Affective responses--emotions, moods and feelings--effect cognition and perception. Media that intentionally causes a high degree of emotional load can significantly image how target audience member perceives and thinks about the subject of the media.
Both humans and automation may be targeted by synthetic media attacks. This criteria references whether the target of the attack was human or automation. The highlighted icon represents the intended target of this submitted media.
Human
Technical
Hybrid
Unknown
A measure of if the attack was constructed by a human or by artificial intelligence. The highlighted icon represents the method of control of this submitted media.
Human
Automation
Hybrid
Unknown
The medium is the format of the content submitted. Highlighted items represent all of the various formats contained in the submitted content.
Text
Image
Video
Audio
Technical complexity of the atttack.
How damaging the attack was intended to be.
This robocall voice deepfake campaign sought to influence voters and interfere with the New Hampshire Presidential primary election. Further, it sought to foment divide between Republicans and Democrats by using evocative "us vs. them" language. Through this language is a request by a perceived authority figure to comply with his described desired action.
Psychological Pressure is the stress felt from perceived serious demands imposed on one person by another individual, group, or environment.
Create group, organization or societal division
Use of deepfake and synthetic media to promote a particular political, scientific, social or other cause
The creator and/or disseminator of the media seeks to create political discord, argumentation and divisiveness.
Motivation is the underlying activator, purpose or sustained reasons for why the deepfake threat actor wants to create nefarious synthetic media.
This robocall voice deepfake campaign sought to influence voters and interfere with the New Hampshire Presidential primary election. Further, it sought to foment divide between Republicans and Democrats by using evocative "us vs. them" language. Through this language is a request by a perceived authority figure to comply with his described desired action.
Targeting is the threat actor’s intentional selection of a target audience, or the group or individual whom he is interested in impacting with his deepfake campaign.
The deepfake campaign was designed to target audiences that include the voters in New Hampshire along with U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote in the 2024 Presidential election.
Research & Reconnaissance occurs when the threat actor is effortfully gathering information about the target audience, the optimal channels to conduct their campaign on, the relevant narratives for the attack, and type of content that will have the desired impact on the target audience.
Voice exemplars of President Biden's were collected to train AI models/deepfake tools to create the voice deepfake used in the robocall campaign.
Preparation & Planning are the steps and processes that the threat actor takes to acquire the tools and content needed to create the deepfake media for their campaign and their deliberation for the execution of the campaign.
Voice exemplars of President Biden's were prepared and submitted to train AI models/deepfake tools to create the voice deepfake used in the robocall campaign.
Production is the threat actor’s use of tools and content for the creation and development of deepfake media for their attack campaign.
Voice exemplars of President Biden's were prepared and submitted to train AI models/deepfake tools to create the voice deepfake used in the robocall
Narrative Testing. A narrative is a story, or an account of related events or experiences. A good narrative will have story coherence, such that both the story being told and its relationship to the real world are cohesive and clear. In deepfake campaigns, threat actors consider and evaluate the possible narratives—particularly in relation to events and context—to support the campaign in an effort to maximize the believability and efficacy of the attack.
The narrative designed in the campaign was to influence voter design making and shape their behavior.
Deployment is the threat actor’s intentional transmission of deepfake content to the target audience through selected online channels.
Telephonic deployment via robocall
Amplification is the threat actor’s intentional efforts to maximize the visibility, virality and target audience exposure to their deepfake content.
No case specific insights generated.
Post-Campaign is the period after the target audience has received and been exposed to the deepfake content.
Robocall technique is an automated mass-calling technique meant to contact a pool of target audience members
Robocall deepfake campaigns are a challenging form of deception because there are few ways to gain full validation or veracity of the call. In these circumstances, Psyber Labs recommends to consider historical context, particularly if the caller has a history of making such calls, or whether such a call is anomalous.