Low
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
Synthetic media used to generate a falsehood to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the target audience. Often, a hoax is used as a vector into other social contagion or deception campaigns
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.
The media is intended to serve as a catalyst for political argument, discord and divisiveness.
The subject media is intended to exploit a number of pre-existing beliefs and cognitive susceptibilities. In particular, the themology of the image is meant to be an older (black and white) image of trump postured similar to General Patton, leading troops behind him, fearlessly forward. The helmet style, uniform and military gear/adornments appear to be "vintage" World War II. President Trump has many loyal followers and admirers who are likely to see him in a positive light, while others will react negatively and harshly scrutinize the image (and place undue validity in the image).
In assessing other people, it is the tendency for a person’s positive trait to be generalized to possess other positive 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 do favors for people whom we like. Can be exploited by establishing rapport with target before asking for action.
Tendency to comply with authority figures (usually legal or expert authorities). Exploitable by assuming the persona or impersonating an authority figure.
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.
Chaos injection is the intentional introduction of evocative material--which is often ambiguous and unresolved--to cause confusion and disorder.
Create group, organization or societal division
Create a real or imaginary threat to the target forcing him to adapt his/her plans.
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)
Creating synthetic media for fun or to create enjoyment for themselves or others, often through embarrassment or playful, non-destructive controversy
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.
The creators/disseminators are seeking to place President Trump in a brave, strong, leadership context.
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 image serves to buoy those favorable to Trump and his message; the image also serves to stoke frustration and reactivity from detractors.
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.
Likely AI generated image using MidJourney. While sophistication and production are not high, compounded with the target audience segments and associations drawn from the image, it is nonetheless evocative.
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.
Posting the image on short-form social media, such as X, with the ability for users to re-tweet, comment, re-post, and like, provides the native ability to cause amplification of the image.
Post-Campaign is the period after the target audience has received and been exposed to the deepfake content.
No case specific insights generated.
Emotionally evocative images, particularly those seeking to capture historical significance (or comparison) such as World War II, should be viewed and considered with scrutiny. Psyber Labs suggests that consumers of such media consider the following questions and carefully deliberate the answer before arriving at a conclusion as to veracity: 1) Who took this image? 2) When was it taken? 3) Why, until now, has it never been seen? 4) Temporal Context: Why is this being posted the day after U.S. Independence Day? 5) Temporal Context: Is former President Trump old enough to have served in World War II or have black and white photos of him? 6) Is there any extrinsic information or evidence as to President Trump serving in the military, particularly as a General or high leadership position? Answering these questions--and those that are follow-up probes to these questions--will meaningfully inform one's analysis and conclusions.
Notes:
At the time of this assessment, the distribution is mediumcast, but with the context of a 2024 election in the United States and similar factors, the distribution can likely widen to broadcast.