Deepfake Ukrainian diplomat targeted US senator on Zoom call

The chair of the United States Foreign Relations Committee was targeted by a sophisticated deepfake operation which impersonated a top Ukrainian official in what was an apparent attempt at election interference.

The office of Ben Cardin, the Democratic Senator for Maryland, reportedly received an email on Thursday September 19 from someone claiming to be former Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba, requesting a Zoom call.

During the subsequent video call, "Kuleba" asked Senator Cardin a series of "politically charged questions" related to the upcoming US Presidential election which were, according to a notice issued by the Senate's security office, "likely trying to bait the senator into commenting on a political candidate."

According to Punchbowl News, which first reported the news, Senator Cardin and his staff were faced with bizarre questions such as "Do you support long-range missiles into Russian territory? I need to know your answer."

The security office warning sent to senior Senate staff underlined that the targeted Senator and Kuleba had met in the past, and those on the video call described the deepfake as convincing in its "technical sophistication and believability."

"When they connected on Zoom, it appeared to be a live audio-video connection that was consistent in appearance and sound to past encounters."

Becoming suspicious, Cardin ended the call; and informed the US State department which confirmed that the caller had not been Kuleba. The incident is now being investigated by the FBI.

Punchbowl News says sources within the Senate say they believe the impersonation was likely to have been an AI-generated deepfake.

As NBC News reports, Cardin has confirmed that he was contacted by a "malign actor" that "engaged in a deceptive attempt to have a conversation with me by posing as a known individual."

Other Senate offices have been warned of an "active social engineering campaign" targeting senators and staff taht appears to have the aim of discrediting victims or gaining sensitive information.

This isn't the first time that deepfakes of Ukrainian public figures have been used in an attempt to dupe politicians in the West.

For instance, in June 2022 it was reported that the mayors of Madrid, Vienna, and Berlin had been duped into having video conversations with a deepfake version of their Kyiv counterpart, Vitali Klitschko.

Outside of the world of politics, an employee of the Hong Kong branch of a multinational company was reportedly duped during a video conference call with deepfakes of their chief financial officer and other staff into transferring US $25 million.