The imposter used artificial intelligence to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and contact government and foreign officials, according to a cable obtained by CBS News.
An 'unknown actor' created a Signal account and used artificial intelligence to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and contact government and foreign officials, according to a State Department cable obtained by CBS News.
The cable was sent to 'All Diplomatic and Consular Posts,' and alerted them that the account was created in mid-June 2025 with the display name marco.rubio@state.gov.'The individual contacted at least five non-Department individuals, including three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a U.S. member of Congress,' the cable said. 'The actor left voicemails on Signal for at least two targeted individuals, and in one instance, sent a text message inviting the individual to communicate on Signal.' In a statement, the State Department said it is 'aware of this incident and is currently investigating this matter.' The Department said it 'continuously takes steps to improve the department's cybersecurity posture to prevent future incidents.' The story was first reported by The Washington Post. The cable says the alleged imposter 'likely aimed to manipulate targeted individuals using AI-generated text and voice messages, with the goal of gaining access to information or accounts.'According to the cable, this effort resembled an incident in May 2025 that was investigated by the FBI of someone impersonating other senior U.S. government officials.There was a separate and unrelated campaign that began in April 2025 of Russia-linked cyber threat actor conducting a spear-fishing campaign that targeted personal Gmail accounts associated with think tank scholars, Eastern European-based activists and dissidents, journalists and former State Department officials. In that incident, the actor allegedly posed as a fictitious State Department official and invited the targets to a meeting in an attempt to link a third-party application to their Gmail accounts. The cable said that if clicked, the application would 'almost certainly' grant the actor persistent access to the Gmail accounts' contents. For this second campaign, industry partners attributed it to a cyber threat actor associated with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service .The cable also listed other instances of threat actors impersonating Department accounts in the past few years.The news also follows 'Signalgate' in March, when journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to a group chat on Signal that included Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. On the chat, the officials discussed plans to strike Houthi targets in Yemen and Waltz was later ousted due in part to the incident.
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