Senior Secret Service official targeted in swatting

A senior Secret Service official was targeted in a swatting incident on the Fourth of July, according to a report by Axios. The incident involved a false emergency call to police claiming the official’s daughter was running through their home with a weapon.

Michael Centrella, assistant director of the Secret Service's Office of Field Operations, discussed the incident with tech executives on Thursday at the Deepfake Resilience Symposium in San Francisco, the outlet reported. Centrella said the caller appeared to mimic the agent’s voice, though investigators are still determining whether a sophisticated deepfake or a generic voice synthesizer was used.

The plan by the caller proved to be unsuccessful, however, given the fact that the agent does not have a daughter and his local law enforcement was aware of that. The Secret Service requested that the name of the official be withheld to prevent potential copycat attacks.

"We were able to protect [the senior official] and not have a major incident," Centrella said. "But you've seen these cases now across the country, they are very impactful."

Swatting incidents, in which false emergency reports are made to provoke a heavy police response, have increasingly been used to target public officials. FBI Director Kash Patel revealed in a recent interview with Joe Rogan that he had been swatted at his home. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has also reported being swatted multiple times and other lawmakers and political media figures have also been targeted.

The incident is being investigated by local authorities, who are also looking into whether artificial intelligence tools were used to clone the official’s voice. Such technology has made it easier for bad actors to impersonate individuals and carry out hoaxes.