An imposter pretending to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent voice and text messages to a congressman, a governor and three foreign ministers, using artificial intelligence software that mimicked his voice and writing style. The story was first reported in The Washington Post and said the department does not yet know who is behind it.
According to a cable sent by Rubio’s office to State Department employees, the culprit is likely trying to manipulate government officials “with the goal of gaining access to information or accounts.”
The State Department is investigating
A senior State Department official told Straight Arrow News that they are aware of the incident and are currently investigating.
“The department takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard its information and continuously takes steps to improve the department’s cybersecurity posture to prevent future incidents,” the senior official told SAN. “For security reasons and due to our ongoing investigation, we are not in a position to offer further details at this time.”
An encrypted Signal
The Post quoted the State Department cable, which said the imposter sent the first messages in mid-June after they opened an account on the encrypted messaging app Signal with the username Marco.Rubio@state.gov. That is not his real email address. They used that account to leave voicemails on at least two officials’ phones.
There have been multiple attempts to impersonate President Donald Trump’s cabinet using AI. In May, a hacker was able to breach Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ phone and both called and messaged senators, governors and business executives. The White House and the FBI were both investigating that incident.
An FBI warning
In May, the FBI put out a public service announcement stating there was an ongoing campaign by “malicious actors” to impersonate senior U.S. officials. The PSA said if you receive a message from a senior U.S. official, do not assume it is authentic.
There are two main techniques used to impersonate people over the phone: “smishing,” which is the use of SMS or MMS messages, and “vishing,” which is the use of voice-memos that use AI-generated voices. The FBI said everyone should use two-factor authentication to log in to devices and set up a secret word or phrase with family members to verify identity.