Masquerading as top Ukrainian officials such as the prime minister, lawmakers or their assistants, the emails - sometimes from genuine-looking "ukr.net" addresses - sought to persuade them into further contact via telephone or video calls, according to a report by Proofpoint.ĭuring the calls, the duo went so far as to use "extensive makeup" to appear like the impersonated individual and coaxed their target to say things that were then selectively used for pro-Russian propaganda, the report said. In an aggressive tactic since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, the pair has targeted prominent figures critical of Moscow with phony emails. "This phone number was noted in our data in a known TA499 campaign." "For a time, TA499 utilized McFaul as an impersonated identity in attempts to obtain contact with high-ranking officials internationally," Proofpoint's researchers told AFP. Proofpoint, a California-based cybersecurity firm, said its analysts have assessed with "high confidence" that this was the work of Vovan and Lexus, together dubbed TA499. The questions the hoaxer asked were "obviously designed to undermine Ukraine's diplomatic and war efforts," McFaul added. McFaul, who served as the envoy from 2012-14, told AFP that the impersonator appeared "live" in calls to many in the Ukrainian government and "spoke in Russian," a language he knows but not fluently. "If you connect on a video platform with this number, you will see an AI-generated 'deepfake' that looks and talks like me. Someone using the phone number +1 (202) 7549885 is impersonating me," Michael McFaul, the former ambassador to Moscow, tweeted last September. But the pair, once dubbed Russia's Jerky Boys who have long denied any connection to the Kremlin, appear to have steadily morphed from mischief-makers to a pro-Kremlin tool of information warfare.Ĭybersecurity researchers say that since the start of Russia's invasion, they have ramped up their targeting of high-profile officials and executives in North America and Europe who have spoken out against Moscow.
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