Elevated
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).
This deepfake encompasses a number of rule violation allegations and brand damage facets.
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)
Allegations of behavior that undermines the fundamental principles of fairness, ethics, and honesty in sports
Negative impact on a company's reputation, credibility, and overall brand value that can result from perceived events, actions, or information that lead consumers and the public to form unfavorable perceptions of the brand.
Synthetic media used to create the appearance that an individual(s) has participated in a press conference and behaved or spoken problematically
Synthetic media or deception narratives meant to cause a decline in the public perception of a brand caused by negative events or actions associated with that brand. This damage can affect how customers, investors, and the broader market view the company, potentially leading to a decrease in consumer trust, loss of sales, difficulties in recruitment, and a drop in share value
Synthetic media or deception narrative that alleges an act or behavior in the sports domain that contradicts the established ethical norms and principles that govern fair and respectful competition. These violations can range from individual misconduct by athletes to systemic issues within sports organizations and affect the integrity of sports as a whole.
The tendency to seek information that confirms or supports a predetermined position or conclusion.
In assessing other people, it is the tendency for a person’s undesirable trait to be generalized to possess other poor traits.
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.
The deepfake video was created to serve a number of motivations, ranging from brand damage to trolling.
Instigating, eliciting or forcing the target audience to take and action that is advantageous to the deepfake threat adversary
Creating synthetic media for fun or to create enjoyment for themselves or others, often through embarrassment or playful, non-destructive controversy
Perception management is the deliberate effort to influence and control the perception of a target audience through strategic use of information, communication, and other practices to shape the way something is observed and interpreted.
The use of synthetic media and/or deception narratives to cause the deterioration of the public image of an individual, organization, or brand. This damage can result from the fabrication of various events, behaviors, or information that negatively influences how the affected entity is perceived by others.
Motivation is the underlying activator, purpose or sustained reasons for why the deepfake threat actor wants to create nefarious synthetic media.
The creation of this deepfake had mixed motivation, to generate humor, particularly to football fans that do not like Michigan University, and to expressly or implicitly cause brand damage by suggesting that Harbaugh cheated to gain advantage in football games
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 target audience are those familiar with college football and the teams who are rivals of Michigan University
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.
Gathering of content where Coach Harbaugh has held pos-game press conferences
Production is the threat actor’s use of tools and content for the creation and development of deepfake media for their attack campaign.
Moderate production value with cadence and affect of the voice being unusal
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 deepfake was created and deployed to create a narrative that Coach Harbaugh not only cheated, but knowingly cheated against multiple teams.
Deployment is the threat actor’s intentional transmission of deepfake content to the target audience through selected online channels.
Multiple social media channels
Amplification is the threat actor’s intentional efforts to maximize the visibility, virality and target audience exposure to their deepfake content.
The video quickly became wildly spread as a result of bing viewed and shared hundreds of thousands of time.
Post-Campaign is the period after the target audience has received and been exposed to the deepfake content.
No case specific insights generated.
Psyber Labs suggests before coming to a conclusion about the content conveyed in the video, ask oneself: Why would Coach Harbaugh admit in a highly viewed post-game press conference to cheating, and violating ethical standards? Is this video in context, cadence and structure as other Jim Harbaugh interviews? Counter-messaging, to include this DTIR on the social media channels that have distributed this deepfake is a way to use science-based analysis inform sketical audiences.