The FBI has released a guidance aimed at helping cybersecurity professionals and the general public identify cases of “deepfake” which adversaries may use to dissuade public opinion.

FBI released the Private Industry Notification guidance on Wednesday in partnership with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

According to the guidance, foreign actors are likely to use synthetic content including deepfakes in the coming months as part of influence campaigns and social engineering tactics.

Deepfakes or generative adversarial network techniques utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to manipulate digital content for fraudulent activities.

FBI expects malicious actors to use deepfakes to support spearphishing techniques and Business Identity Compromise attacks designed to imitate corporate personas and authority figures.

“Currently, individuals are more likely to encounter information online whose context has been altered by malicious actors versus fraudulent, synthesized content,” the guidance states. “This trend, however, will likely change as AL and ML technologies continue to advance.’ 

Adversaries have used deepfake techniques to create fictitious journalists for false news items since 2017, according to the guidance.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has commenced efforts to design and build a new $75 million facility that would support clean energy research and implementation. The new Grid Storage Launchpad (GSL) will operate from the Richland, Washington-based Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), DOE said Wednesday.

“The Grid Storage Launchpad facility will bring together researchers and industry from around the country to modernize and add flexibility to the power grid, advance storage technologies and boost use of clean energy,” said Jennifer Granholm, secretary of energy.

GSL will house collaborative and multidisciplinary research, tests of energy storage systems and accelerated technology development. Thirty laboratories will compose the facility’s research workspace, including testing chambers.

PNNL will select a contractor for GSL’s design and build, as DOE expects construction activities to start later this year. The department also anticipates the future facility to be ready for operations by 2025.

The House Armed Services Committee has formed a task force that will work with the Department of Defense (DOD) to identify critical supplies and address potential vulnerabilities in the supply chain, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

The Defense Critical Supply Chain Task Force falls under the leadership of Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and will run for three months.

Slotkin said in a prior press call that she expects the task force to address issues related to critical supplies such as personal protective equipment, semiconductors and advanced battery components.

Slotkin and Gallagher noted that the task force’s work will build on ideas from the Cyberspace Solarium Commission and the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI). 

Gallagher added that risks in the supply chain also result from an “extreme geographic concentration” of manufacturing activities in China, particularly on 5G technologies.

Amentum announced a new partnership with UiPath on Thursday. The agreement stipulates that the companies will work jointly to extend the benefits of robotic process automation (RPA) adopted by many federal agencies to mission-oriented customers in Amentum’s portfolio of national significance programs.

“With this new partnership, Amentum is well-positioned to change the paradigm, taking process automation out of the back office and giving it a new mission orientation,” remarked Jill Bruning, president of Amentum and former Wash100 Award recipient.

The partnership will focus on delivering multiple automation aspects to the companies’ clients. Such elements include mission support, sustainment, operations, maintenance, threat mitigation, assurance, supply chain and logistics.

Amentum’s products apply to various domains and accentuate its advanced analytics software by providing robust processes and a technology platform to develop software bots that automate routine, repetitive business processes.

UiPath is a RPA software company founded in 2005. Its RPA services pair well with Amentum’s advanced analytics products. RPA software produced by this partnership aims to automate low-value work so staff can devote more time to crucial non-automated business elements.

The partnership also complements Amentum’s recent launch of the Center of Excellence for Advanced Process Automation. The Center was a significant step in maturing the company’s automation offerings.

Amentum is a global technology and engineering services partner with over 34,000 employees in all 50 U.S. states and 105 foreign countries. It supports critical national significance programs in the defense, security, intelligence, energy and environmental sectors.

“Our partnership with UiPath will help our mission-critical customers achieve the benefits of automation and provide trusted support throughout their digital transformation journeys,” concluded Bruning.

Bob Kolasky, assistant director of the National Risk Management Center (NRMC), said the key to 5G implementation is having software security tools to isolate sources of risk and prevent subsequent vulnerabilities, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) official said that isolating elements will make networks easier to handle and enable tech teams to “deal with issues as they emerge.”

Thyagarajan Nandagopal, acting deputy division director of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering directorate within the National Science Foundation (NSF), said that implementing 5G will require concurrent operations with LTE-driven 4G networks.

He noted that the rolling out of next-generation equipment will enable customers to transition out of LTE and into a 5G network over time.

Ryan Vega, the lead for diffusion of excellence at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Center for Innovation, noted that testing and evaluating emerging technologies like 5G for the benefit of patients and clinicians will serve as a key focus area for the department this fiscal year.

He added that he expects to see more prevalent usage of connected devices in homes as well as acute care.

Lt. Gen. Laura Potter, the U.S. Army’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence, G-2, said her office focuses on four priorities and those are people, readiness, modernization and allies and partners, National Defense reported Wednesday.

She said the service is advancing the “people” priority by identifying the skills future intelligence analysts should possess and looking for ways to help them excel in artificial intelligence and machine learning areas.

“If you think of the volumes of data that we have to analyze, the speed with which we will have to analyze it, and the way we have to synchronize for high-end conflict, we really need to look at what those analysts’ skills look like,” Potter said Wednesday during an Association of the United States Army-hosted webinar. 

When it comes to readiness, Potter said the Army is pursuing the regionally aligned readiness and modernization model or ReARMM.

“Army ReARMM will inform intelligence ReARMM, and that will help us steer the level at which we modernize the entire force and ensure that we've got units capable of supporting each one of the theaters,” Potter said. 

The Potomac Officers Club will hold its 3rd Annual Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 30 to foster discussions on how to advance AI technology at speed and how private-public partnerships are key to maintaining the competitive advantage within the tech race. To register for this virtual summit and view other upcoming events, visit the Potomac Officers Club Events page.