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[EN VIDÉO] Cyber espionage: what are the threats? Interference in elections, theft of industrial data, hacking into military systems… Cyber espionage has taken off in the last two decades.
For several years now, we have been warning against the ” deepfakes », and without real surprise, this phenomenon appeared at the heart of the war in ukraine where all shots are allowed, and especially the worst. On the one hand, a country which resists the invader, which needs images to bear witness to its tragic fate and mobilize the population. On the other, Russia, which censors its media and tries to overthrow public opinion with manipulated images.
A situation that came to a head when a Ukrainian television news outlet revealed that his episode live and its website had been hacked on Wednesday March 16. Instead of the news, a solemn declaration by President Zelensky asking his people to surrender!
” Dear Ukrainians! Dear Defenders! Being president has not been so easy. I have to make tough decisions. At first I decided to return the Donbass. It’s time to look into the eyes. It did not work. It got worse. Much worse. There is no more future. At least as far as I’m concerned. And now I decide to say goodbye to you. I advise you to lay down your arms and return to your families. You must not die in this war. I advise you to live, and I will do the same. »
Zelensky forced to deny
The video of this capitulation is immediately shown on the social networks and goes viral. A few minutes later, the Ukraine 24 channel hastened to announce on Facebook that his newscast and website were hacked. For his part, Zelenskyy must himself post a video to deny it.
” About the latest childish provocation, according to which I propose to lay down arms. I can only offer to lay down their arms to the servicemen of the Russian Federation and let them go home. We are already at home. We defend our land, our children, our families. And we are absolutely not going to lay down our arms. Until our victory, Zelensky reacted in his message, according to a translation of Vice.
The army warns the population
Since, Ukraine 24 website is accessible again and no one has claimed responsibility for this alleged hack or fake video. On the other hand, it has raised awareness, a little more, of the dangers of deepfakes. On Facebook, the Ukrainian Land Forces account posted a warning against doctored videos: “ Imagine seeing Vladimir Zelensky on television making a statement of surrender. You see it, you hear it — so it’s true. But that’s not the truth! This is deepfake technology,” can we read. “It will not be a real video, since it was created by machine learning algorithms. Videos made using such technologies are almost indistinguishable from real ones. »
In this case, the one announcing the capitulation of Ukraine was not “perfect”, and it was even crude. It was a mixture of a synthetic, and therefore rather recognizable, voice on a face that lacked natural expressions. Of course, it’s easier to analyze against the backlash, but live, many Ukrainians could have been trapped. The good news is that deepfake detection tools quickly identified this video on the networks and were able to delete it in stride.
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