Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 14 June 2019
Experts: Spy used AI-generated face to connect with targets

By RAPHAEL SATTER of dispatching spies to yanking thousands of them Lionel Fatton, who teaches “I ought to have heard of
AP Cybersecurity Writer some parking garage in in the first three months of East Asian affairs at Web- her.”
LONDON (AP) — Katie Jones the U.S to recruit a target, 2019. It also said “we rec- ster University in Geneva, CSIS spokesman Andrew
sure seemed plugged it’s more efficient to sit be- ommend you connect with said the fact that he didn’t Schwartz told the AP that
into Washington’s political “no one named Katie
scene. The 30-something Jones works for us.”
redhead boasted a job Jones also claimed to have
at a top think tank and a earned degrees in Russian
who’s-who network of pun- studies from the University
dits and experts, from the of Michigan, but the school
centrist Brookings Institution said it was “unable to find
to the right-wing Heritage anyone by this name earn-
Foundation. She was con- ing these degrees from the
nected to a deputy as- university.”
sistant secretary of state, The Jones account van-
a senior aide to a senator ished from LinkedIn shortly
and the economist Paul after the AP contacted the
Winfree, who is being con- network seeking comment.
sidered for a seat on the Messages sent to Jones
Federal Reserve. herself, via LinkedIn and an
But Katie Jones doesn’t associated AOL email ac-
exist, The Associated Press count, went unreturned.
has determined. Instead, Numerous experts inter-
the persona was part of a viewed by AP said perhaps
vast army of phantom pro- the most intriguing aspect
files lurking on the profes- of the Katie Jones persona
sional networking site Linke- was her face, which they
dIn. And several experts say appears to be artificial-
contacted by the AP said ly created.
Jones’ profile picture ap- This image captured on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 shows part of a LinkedIn profile for someone who Klingemann and other ex-
peared to have been cre- identified themselves as Katie Jones. perts said the photo — a
ated by a computer pro- Associated Press closely cropped portrait of
gram. a woman with blue-green
“I’m convinced that it’s hind a computer in Shang- people you know and trust, know Jones did prompt a eyes, copper-colored hair
a fake face,” said Mario hai and send out friend re- not just anyone.” brief pause when he con- and an enigmatic smile —
Klingemann, a German quests to 30,000 targets,” The Katie Jones profile nected with her back in appeared to have been
artist who has been experi- he said in a written state- was modest in scale, with March. created using a family of
menting for years with arti- ment. 52 connections. But those “I remember hesitating,” he dueling computer pro-
ficially generated portraits Last month, retired CIA of- connections had enough said. “And then I thought, grams called generative
and says he has reviewed ficer Kevin Mallory was sen- influence that they imbued ‘What’s the harm?’” adversarial networks, or
tens of thousands of such tenced to 20 years in prison the profile with credibil- Parello-Plesner noted that GANs, that can create real-
images. “It has all the hall- for passing details of top ity to some who accepted the potential harm can istic-looking faces of entire-
marks.” secret operations to Bei- Jones’ invites. The AP spoke be subtle: Connecting ly imaginary people. GANs,
Experts who reviewed the jing, a relationship that be- to about 40 other people to a profile like Jones’ in- sometimes described as
Jones profile’s LinkedIn gan when a Chinese agent who connected with Jones vites whoever is behind it a form of artificial intel-
activity say it’s typical of posing as a recruiter con- between early March and to strike up a one-on-one ligence, have been the
espionage efforts on the tacted him on LinkedIn. early April of this year, conversation, and other us- cause of increasing con-
professional networking Unlike Facebook’s friends- many of whom said they ers on the site can view the cern for policymakers al-
site, whose role as a glob- and-family focus, LinkedIn routinely accept invitations connection as a kind of en- ready struggling to get a
al Rolodex has made it a is oriented toward job seek- from people they don’t dorsement. handle on digital disinfor-
powerful magnet for spies. ers and headhunters, peo- recognize. “You lower your guard and mation. On Thursday, U.S.
“It smells a lot like some sort ple who routinely fire out “I’m probably the worst you get others to lower their lawmakers held their first
of state-run operation,” resumes, build vast webs of LinkedIn user in the history guard,” he said. hearing devoted primarily
said Jonas Parello-Plesner, contacts and pitch projects of LinkedIn,” said Winfree, The Jones profile was first to the threat of artificially
who serves as program to strangers. That connect- the former deputy direc- flagged by Keir Giles, a Rus- generated imagery.
director at the Denmark- them-all approach helps fill tor of President Donald sia specialist with London’s Hao Li, who directs the Vi-
based think tank Alliance of the millions of job openings Trump’s domestic policy Chatham House think tank. sion of Graphics Lab at
Democracies Foundation advertised on the site, but it council, who confirmed Giles was recently caught the University of Southern
and was the target several also provides a rich hunting connection with Jones on up in an entirely separate California’s Institute for Cre-
years ago of an espionage ground for spies. And that March 28. espionage operation tar- ative Technologies, reeled
operation that began over has Western intelligence Winfree, whose name geting critics of the Russian off a list of digital tells that
LinkedIn . agencies worried. came up last month in re- antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab. he believes show the Jones
William Evanina, director of British , French and Ger- lation to one of the vacan- So when he received an in- photo was created by a
the U.S. National Counter- man officials have all issued cies on the Federal Reserve vitation from Katie Jones on computer program, includ-
intelligence and Security warnings over the past few Board of Governors, said LinkedIn he was suspicious. ing inconsistencies around
Center, said foreign spies years detailing how thou- he rarely logs on to LinkedIn She claimed to have been Jones’ eyes, the ethereal
routinely use fake social sands of people had been and tends to just approve working for years as a “Rus- glow around her hair and
media profiles to home in contacted by foreign spies all the piled-up invites when sia and Eurasia fellow” at smudge marks on her left
on American targets — and over LinkedIn. he does. the Center for Strategic cheek.
accused China in particu- In a statement, LinkedIn “I literally accept every and International Studies “This is a typical GAN,” he
lar of waging “mass scale” said it routinely took ac- friend request that I get,” in Washington, but Giles said. “I’ll bet money on
spying on LinkedIn.”Instead tion against fake accounts, he said. said that, if that were true, it.”q