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 spread of behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and affect through social aggregates from one member to another
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
Re-posts, re-Tweets, and sharing of this content from others, particularly others that online users like and/or trust can create a contagion effect. Similarly, since Putin is a controversial person whom is widely disliked as a result of Russia's hostile invasion into Ukraine, many who both saw or shared this image may not have fully assessed or ignored evidence of falsehood as a result of confirmation bias or desirability bias (motivated reasoning)
The tendency to seek information that confirms or supports a predetermined position or conclusion.
Tendency to take actions consistent with the actions of others, especially those we perceive as similar to ourselves. Can be exploited by either creating a referent group or referencing a referent group.
Technique that attempts to implant a false memory in the target through suggestion.
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.
The creator, Eliot Higgins, tweeted this image, overtly referencing that he created it using MidJourney AI. It can be inferred that he knew others may see these images and, in turn, re-post, re-tweet or otherwise share the image
The Production phase was relatively simplistic, low quality and overt--the creator openly tweeted on Twitter (now "X") that the image was created with MidJourney AI.
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.
Users receiving this and similar images should carefully and thoughtfully review the context of the image origin. By doing this, heuristic thinking and cognitive biases are mitigated.