Several of us here at PJ Media have been writing about the positives and negatives of AI in recent weeks. What the Washington Post reported on Tuesday definitely falls into the latter category.
Someone is using AI to pretend to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
You might be thinking, so what? People try to scam us all the time. Personally, I get texts pretty much daily now from "police" telling me I need to pay my Florida toll fees or my Georgia traffic tickets. I haven't had a toll fee since 2023, and I haven't gotten a traffic ticket since 2018. I'm all paid up.
This is a bit more high-profile, however. The scammer contacted "foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a member of Congress by sending them voice and text messages that mimic Rubio’s voice and writing style using artificial intelligence-powered software, according to a senior U.S. official and a State Department cable." The cable, which was dated July 3, was sent from Rubio's office to State Department employees.
The scammer also used the now-controversial encrypted message app Signal to send messages under the name "[email protected]." As the Post points out, that is not the Secretary's real email address. In addition to Rubio, this person also reportedly impersonated other State Department employees.
There's no word on how or if these people who were targeted responded.
The cable stated that federal authorities didn't know who is behind these criminal acts, but they do believe the person is trying to manipulate powerful people "with the goal of gaining access to information or accounts."
According to the Post, the cable tells "U.S. diplomats to report 'any impersonation attempts' to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is investigating the matter, and for non-State Department officials to alert the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center."
Related for VIPs: AI Can’t Reason. That’s a Feature, Not a Bug.
The FBI has been warning about this type of impersonation of public officials since May.
The Donald Trump administration is currently taking steps to crack down on these types of bad actors. As a matter of fact, as I was writing this, I received an email from the State Department stating:
The United States is imposing sanctions on Song Kum Hyok, a North Korean cyber actor associated with the U.S.-designated North Korea hacking group Andariel. Song was involved in in malicious cyber-enabled activities, which included an illicit information technology (IT) worker scheme. He is also linked to an attempted hack of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. We are also imposing sanctions on Russia-based facilitator Gayk Asatryan and four entities – two Russian and two North Korean – all involved in deploying IT workers internationally to generate revenue for the North Korean government.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea deploys IT workers who obfuscate their identities, often through identity theft of U.S. persons, to fraudulently obtain employment at unwitting foreign firms. The North Korea regime uses revenue generated by these workers to support its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.
Today’s sanctions are part of the U.S. government’s efforts to combat North Korean cyber espionage and revenue generation. We will continue to take action against malicious cyber actors who attempt to undermine U.S. national security or the U.S. financial sector.
There's also a $10 million reward for "for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, engages in certain malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act" and a $5 million reward for "for information leading to the disruption of financial mechanisms of persons engaged in certain activities that support North Korea, including the exportation of its workers to generate revenue."
As for the Rubio impersonations, the State Department told the Post that it would "carry out a thorough investigation and continue to implement safeguards to prevent this from happening in the future." Let's hope so. This could easily become a national security crisis if it's not handled swiftly.
Stay informed. Stay skeptical. Stay ahead.
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