New research has shed light on the growing use of deepfakes that spoof current US government officials.
investigation of cyber news has claimed that in the past two years there have been 156 deepfake incidents targeting sitting US officials, including President Trump and Vice President Vance.
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Fake growth
Cybernews’ investigation was based on data from Resemble.ai’s deepfake incident database, which includes more than 2,000 cases from March 11, 2024.
The report found that President Donald Trump accounted for only 90 of the 156 recorded cases, or 58% of all deepfake incidents in the data set.
Perhaps this isn’t too surprising, as Trump appears to be a particular fan of posting simulated or falsified images of himself in new roles or costumes on his Truth Social network.
Marco Rubio (13 cases) and JD Vance (12 cases) were next, with the three accounting for nearly three-quarters of all reported cases.
The most attacked Democratic figure was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with nine cases, followed by Amy Klobuchar (6 cases) and Hakeem Jeffries (5 cases).
These small numbers highlight how scammers use a select group of highly recognizable figures to capture interest and hook victims.
The use of deepfakes is especially concerning as the US midterm elections draw closer, and scammers or hackers may use the technology to promote inaccurate or false opinions.
As always, we urge everyone to be especially careful when viewing or clicking on potentially dubious online posts, especially if it’s a site you don’t visit regularly or have never heard of.
Be especially careful with sites that ask for personal information, especially payment or card details.
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