Moderate
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).
The Eliot Higgin X (formerly Twitter) account overtly referenced that this was a created image, suggesting that there was no hidden effort to cause disinformation or injection of chaos. However, quite often consumers of user-generated content do not take the time or effort to assess the context of social media postings. As a result, it is reasonable to assume that many who viewed the image would likely be reactive to the evocative imagery. Thus this image could provoke target audiences and foster misinformation.
The spread of behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and affect through social aggregates from one member to another
Slang for provocative, inflammatory, insincere, digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messaging with the intent of provoking others into displaying emotional responses, or manipulating others' perception.
Meme
In assessing other people, it is the tendency for a person’s positive trait to be generalized to possess other positive traits.
In assessing other people, it is the tendency for a person’s undesirable trait to be generalized to possess other poor traits.
Information that is more readily available in memory is judged as more likely or more representative. Can be influenced by recency or emotional virulence of the memories.
Tendency to focus on a single piece of information when making a decision or assessing a situation, this is often one of the first pieces of information acquired by the individual.
Tendency to continue with a behavioral track once starting on that track. Can be exploited by obtaining target compliance with a small request, and later making a larger request.
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.
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.
While Eliot Higgins may not have overtly sought to cause emotional reaction and inject chaos by posting this evocative imagery, there is a known likelihood that consumers of user-generated content will not fully read or contex
Create group, organization or societal division
Creating synthetic media for fun or to create enjoyment for themselves or others, often through embarrassment or playful, non-destructive controversy
Motivation is the underlying activator, purpose or sustained reasons for why the deepfake threat actor wants to create nefarious synthetic media.
No case specific insights generated.
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.
No case specific insights generated.
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.
No case specific insights generated.
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.
No case specific insights generated.
Production is the threat actor’s use of tools and content for the creation and development of deepfake media for their attack campaign.
No case specific insights generated.
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.
No case specific insights generated.
Deployment is the threat actor’s intentional transmission of deepfake content to the target audience through selected online channels.
No case specific insights generated.
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.
No case specific insights generated.
Mindful reading of the post text, understanding of the post context and careful attention to true events (with temporal context) can help inoculate target audiences from relying on heuristic cues, imagination and negative outcomes expectancies.