Summary Threat Type Vulnerabilities Surface Matrix Motivations Kill Chain Recommendations Appendix
Print Report

Deepfake of NBC's Garrett Haake commenting on Republican Primary Debate

Submitted File

NBC News has called on a top Trump campaign official to take down a deepfake video purporting to show one of the network’s reporters breaking down last month’s third Republican primary debate. On November 8, 2023, Senior Trump 2024 adviser Chris LaCivita posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) of NBC reporter Garrett Haake disparaging Republican primary election candidates ahead of the November 8, 2023 Miami debate, which NBC News co-hosted with the Republican National Committee.

Threat Level

Low

Moderate

Elevated

High


Authenticity Spectrum

Real

Suspicious

Likely Fake

Fake



Deepfake Attack Profile

Credibility

Moderate

The more synthetic media is perceived to be legitimate and authoritative, the content is more likely to be trusted, persuasive, and acted upon.

Interactivity

Low

Synthetic media can range from non-interactive, not ongoing, or not consistent (low) to interactive, ongoing, and consistent (high).

Familiarity

High

Synthetic media can range from very recognizable and familiar (high) or hardly (or not) recognizable and familiar (low).

Evocation

Moderate

Synthetic media can range from evoking a significant affective response (high) to barely or not at all eliciting an affective reaction.

Distribution

Broadcast

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 & Synthetic Media Analysis Framework (DSMAF) Assessment™. The media submitted for this Deepfake Threat Intelligence Report (DTIR) was assessed with the Psyber Labs Deepfake & Synthetic Media Analysis Framework (DSMAF)™, a set of psychological, sociological and affective influence factors and sub-facets, that when holistically applied, inform the motivations, intentions, and targeting process in synthetic media and deepfake propagation. The findings of each DSMAF factor is described in respective sections and graphically plotted on the Deepfake Risk Factor Radar. The combined DSMAF findings are given a Synthetic Media Threat Level (Low, Medium, Elevated, or High) for actionable awareness and risk mitigation.

Threat Type

Threat Type is the category of intended purpose and the risk proposed by the synthetic media or deepfake. Often, cyber deception efforts through deepfake content are multi-purpose, and a result, are categorized with multiple threat types.

Use of deepfake content to catalyze political tumult.

Social Contagion

The spread of behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and affect through social aggregates from one member to another

Digital Impersonation for Disinformation

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

Propaganda

Information, especially of a biased, misleading or non-rational nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view

Political Instigator

The media is intended to serve as a catalyst for political argument, discord and divisiveness.

Common Cognitive Vulnerabilities & Exposures™ (CCVE)

Common Cognitive Vulnerabilities & Exploits (CCVEs) are perceptual distortions, cognitive biases, heuristics misapplied, or any mental process that exposes a person to a potential manipulation by an adversary.

The synthetic media is well crafted, humorous and likely to target those viewing and consuming the content and not willing or able to more deeply consider the context surrounding the video.

Availability Heuristic

Category: Cognitive Processing

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.

Suggestibility

Category: Other Psychological Vulnerabilities

Technique that attempts to implant a false memory in the target through suggestion. 


Deepfake Attack Surface & Vectors

As part of the DSMAF criteria, Deepfake Attack Surface & Vectors assesses the intended target; the manner of control, or how the synthetic media is being presented to the target; and medium, or the type of synthetic media being presented to the intended target.


Intended Target

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



Control

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



Medium

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

Synthetic Media Exploitation Matrix

The Synthetic Media Exploitation Matrix Is a visual representation of the combined levels of attacker sophistication and maliciousness.

  • Sophistication is a judgment of the level of demonstrated technological prowess and capability involved in the attack.
  • Maliciousness is a conclusion regarding the degree to which the attack was deliberately intended to cause harm.

Sophistication

High

Technical complexity of the atttack.

Sophistication
Maliciousness

Chart Not Available on Printed Version

Maliciousness

High

How damaging the attack was intended to be.



Motivations

Motivations are the underlying activators, purposes or sustained reasons for why the deepfake threat actor sought to create and take the necessary steps to produce and disseminate synthetic media or deepfake content.

Injecting Chaos

Chaos injection is the intentional introduction of evocative material--which is often ambiguous and unresolved--to cause confusion and disorder.

Divisiveness

Create group, organization or societal division

Provocation

Instigating, eliciting or forcing the target audience to take and action that is advantageous to the deepfake threat adversary

Humor

Content created and disseminated for levity and comedic value.

Political Tumult

The creator and/or disseminator of the media seeks to create political discord, argumentation and divisiveness.

The Deepfake Kill Chain™

The Deepfake Kill Chain™ describes the various, distinct, sequential stages of deepfake media creation and dissemination. Understanding these stages, and the adversary’s efficacy in the respective stages not only reveals the adversary’s modus operandi and decision-making process, but when contrasted with the Deepfake & Synthetic Media Analysis Framework™, identifies and elucidates methods of preventing and defending against the adversary’s deepfake attacks.

Motivation

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

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 and Reconnaissance

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 and Planning

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.

The video was developed well in advance of deployment prior to the November 8 Republican primary debate.

Production

Production is the threat actor’s use of tools and content for the creation and development of deepfake media for their attack campaign.

The content and quality of the video is realistic and likely used more sophisticated tools to create and process.

Narrative Testing

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

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

Amplification is the threat actor’s intentional efforts to maximize the visibility, virality and target audience exposure to their deepfake content.

The video was posted via Senior Trump 2024 campaign adviser Chris LaCivita's X account. To date this video has been viewed 211.7k times and reposted 759 times and garnered 261 comments.

Post-Campaign

Post-Campaign is the period after the target audience has received and been exposed to the deepfake content.

No case specific insights generated.



Cognitive Security Recommendations

This section identifies the steps and measures to prevent and defend against the synthetic media/deepfake content assessed in this DTIR. For a more detailed recommendation, training or consultation, connect with Psyber Labs.


Appendix

DTIR™ Version: 1.0

Submission Date (UTC): January 02, 2024 00:59

Assessment Date (UTC): March 26, 2024 01:39

SHA256 Hash: b905cf9d0e7c07c081e1547f2a8c45dc5e7ce05b46d1f50be38a8845ea9fa98b

Source: https://nypost.com/2023/12/11/news/nbc-news-demands-trump-official-scrap-deepfake-reporter-video/