FBI Warns of Deepfake Messages Impersonating Senior Officials

The FBI says former federal and state government officials are targeted with texts and AI-generated voice messages impersonating senior US officials.

The FBI on Thursday issued a warning to the public after investigating a malicious campaign targeting former senior US federal or state government officials with deepfakes.

The campaign, the agency says, relies on text messages and AI-generated voice messages impersonating senior US officials, two techniques known as smishing and vishing.

After establishing communication with the victims, threat actors send malicious links allegedly transitioning the conversation to a different messaging platform, but aimed at serving malware or harvesting credentials to gain access to the victims’ personal accounts.

“Access to personal or official accounts operated by US officials could be used to target other government officials, or their associates and contacts, by using trusted contact information they obtain. Contact information acquired through social engineering schemes could also be used to impersonate ...