An imposter used artificial intelligence to imitate the voice and writing style of the United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubioin communications with several US and foreign officials with the aim of obtaining access to sensitive information, according to media on Tuesday.
A cable sent by Rubio’s office to employees of the State Department, obtained by The Washington Post, reveals that the individual “He contacted at least five people outside the department, including three foreign officials, a governor of the United States and a congressman.”
The authorities still do not know the identity of the imposter, who as they believe, He tried to manipulate his interlocutors to “obtain access to information or accounts”indicates the document, dated July 3.
The identity supplant attempts were confirmed to the post by a senior state department official and would have begun in mid -June Through text messaging applications such as Signal, a safe communication route widely used by Trump administration members.
The spokeswoman of the State Department, Tammy Bruceconfirmed what happened and He assured that the portfolio “takes the matter very seriously”, is working to “avoid future incidents”but did not want to contribute more details about the case.
“Right now it is problematic to share details. I cannot give more details or the actions we are taking or the ones that are going to be taken, but they will find out when that happens,” Bruce added.
The imposter created an account under the username “Marco.rubio@state.gov” to try to deceive foreign and American diplomats and politicians.
“The individual left voice messages in Signal to at least two people and, on one occasion, he sent them a text message inviting them to communicate,” says the state department cable, which also states that other officials of that organization were also supplanted by a fraudulent email.
Before the questions of the post, the State Department did not share details about the communications or the officials involved, but insisted that “it would carry out an exhaustive investigation and continue to implement security measures to prevent this from happening again.”
The attempt to supplant Rubio’s identity took place after several security incidents that involve senior government officials of the president Donald Trump.
Last May, an individual won access to the Telephone of the White House Cabinet, Susie Wilesfrom where he called and sent messages to senators, governors and executives of companies as if he were the official, which triggered an investigation by the FBIaccording to reports from The Wall Street Journal.
In the United States, supplant the identity of a federal official or employee with the aim of deceiving or obtaining something in return It is a crime that could entail up to three years in jail.
The signal messenger application was also the scene of a recent political scandal, when last March a journalist was added by mistake to a group where several senior officials of the Trump administration, including the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Defense, Pete HegsethThey shared highly classified military information.