According to Microsoft analysts, Iranian state-backed hackers disrupted a television streaming service in the United Arab Emirates and broadcast a deepfake newsreader distributing reports on the Gaza war.
Microsoft announced that a hacking operation by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps disrupted streaming platforms in the UAE with an AI-generated news broadcast dubbed “For Humanity.”
The fake news anchors introduced unverified images showing wounded and killed Palestinians in Israeli military operations in Gaza. The hacker group known as Cotton Sandstorm hacked three online streaming services and published a video on the messaging platform Telegram showing them disrupting a news channel with fake newscasters, according to Microsoft analysts.
Dubai residents using HK1RBOXX set-top boxes received a message in December that read, “To get this message to you, we have no choice but to hack you,” the UAE-based news service said. The AI-generated anchor then introduced a message that read: “Graphic” images and captions showing the number of casualties in Gaza so far.
Microsoft also noted reports of disruptions in Canada and the United Kingdom, where channels including the BBC were affected, although the BBC was not directly hacked.
In a blog post, Microsoft said, “This is the first Iranian influence operation where AI plays a key element in messaging, and is an example of the rapid and significant expansion of the Iranian operation’s scope since its inception.”
“The confusion was also felt by viewers in the UAE, UK, and Canada.”
Breakthroughs in generative AI technology have led to an increase in deepfake content online, which has raised concerns about its potential to disrupt elections, including the US presidential election.
Experts are concerned that AI-generated materials could be deployed on a large scale to disrupt elections this year, including the US presidential election. Iran targeted the 2020 US election with a cyber campaign that included sending threatening emails to voters posing as members of the far-right Proud Boys group and launching a website inciting violence against FBI Director Christopher Wray and others. Spreading disinformation about voting infrastructure.
Microsoft said that since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Iranian state-backed forces have engaged in a series of cyberattacks and attempts to manipulate public opinion online, including attacks on targets in Israel, Albania, Bahrain (a signatory to the Abraham Accords formalizing relations with Israel), and the US.
Source: www.theguardian.com
