Insights

We keep talking about synthetic voice like it is the threat. It’s not. Synthetic voice is the attack vector. The exploit is human trust.

Deepfakes and synthetic voice cloning are not new threats. The concept has been around for years. What makes them urgent today is their expansion in scale, speed, and accessibility. What once required specialized skills and resources can now be done in real time with off-the-shelf tools.

In January 2024, voters in New Hampshire received phone calls from what sounded like President Joe Biden telling them not to vote in the Democratic primary. The voice was AI-generated. What looked like a simple robocall was, in fact, a test — a demonstration of how easily synthetic media can be weaponized to manipulate civic trust.

When researchers uncovered PromptLock, it didn’t just encrypt files — it wrote its own malicious code on the fly. At the same time, reports about Hexstrike-style orchestration engines showed AI systems capable of scanning, pivoting, and exploiting networks with minimal human micromanagement.

Open-source intelligence has always been a discipline of curiosity and precision — a craft built on observation, verification, and judgment. Long before artificial intelligence entered the conversation, practitioners were already automating discovery. Tools like Sherlock, TheHarvester, and custom Python scripts were staples of the trade. These tools didn’t replace analysts; they extended their reach. They made professionals faster, not redundant.

When most people think about critical infrastructure, they picture power grids, water systems, or national defense networks. But the real soft underbelly of our digital ecosystem is hiding in plain sight, in the small police departments and rural hospitals that keep America’s communities running.

My last article closed on a hard truth: resilience does not start in Washington or Silicon Valley. It starts in the local hospital, the county sheriff’s office, and the small teams keeping both safe. That is where digital trust either holds or fails.

Asc3nd, Cisco, National Defense University, and IGEL Accelerate DoD Comply-to-Connect and Zero Trust Mission Readiness   DoD-Compliant...

In today’s hyper-connected world, leaders are more visible — and more vulnerable — than ever. Organizations invest heavily in corporate cybersecurity, but one critical blind spot often remains: the personal digital identities of executives and senior officials.