Russia, Ukraine ‘deepfake’ video, audio are concerns for US intelligence

As tensions proceed to rise in Ukraine and Russia, U.S. intelligence officers are on the look ahead to manipulated video and audio that would lead to a number of circumstances of misinformation.

The FBI continues to wage a marketing campaign in opposition to unlawful deepfakes, because the expertise continues to enhance.

“Audio, video, textual content and pictures which are created to indicate one thing that did not essentially occur, or by no means occurred,” FBI Cyber Division Unit Chief Pranav Shah mentioned of deepfakes.

Shah tells FOX Information the expertise, as soon as reserved for cyber wizards, is turning into extra user-friendly. He says it’s getting simpler to make these digital deceptions, they usually aren’t at all times unlawful. A number of parodies of Tom Cruise and different actors exist on-line.

TOM CRUISE DEEPFAKES ON TIKTOK POINT TO MORE SERIOUS PROBLEMS WITH REALISTIC PHONY VIDEOS

The FBI will get concerned if the video violates any federal legal guidelines, like extortion or fraud. Shah gave FOX Information instance of the voice of an organization government being manipulated.

“The identical inflection. The identical accent, they usually make a telephone name and you’ll ask the worker because the CEO, to wire that cash.” 

The same scenario occurred in Hong Kong as a part of a world heist that’s nonetheless below investigation.

Whereas the FBI will not particularly touch upon deepfakes as a part of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, different intelligence sources say they’re looking out for altered movies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and different key gamers.

“I believe we’re simply beginning to see the tip of the iceberg on these,” cyber knowledgeable Matthew Canham advised Fox Information of deepfakes.

Canham has a stern warning for the general public.

“I believe it is most likely smart to examine every part that you just see,” he mentioned. “In all probability the extra emotionally provocative it’s, the extra vital it’s to verify the sources.”