Military sounds alarm on deepfakes ahead of Han Kuang exercises

Military sounds alarm on deepfakes ahead of Han Kuang exercises

2024-07-16

Taiwan is on alert against deepfakes ahead of the annual Han Kuang exercises. At a press conference, military spokesperson Sun Li-fang warned that disinformation tends to surge around the time of the war games. Advanced technology can make what’s called deepfake videos, which show real people saying or doing things they never said or did. Deepfakes can be used in warfare to manipulate enemies and affect public morale, experts say.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tells his soldiers to surrender to Russia. His face is stiff, with a voice and lip movements that aren’t quite natural. The video is a so-called deepfake.

Su Tzu-yun
Institute for National Defense and Security Research
It can affect public morale. It can be used as a form of intelligence, to manipulate the enemy’s interpretation of the facts and produce false information.

Deepfakes have targeted U.S. President Joe Biden, as well as Taiwan’s top officials.

Before the 2024 election, deepfakes appeared featuring then-Vice President Lai Ching-te and President Tsai Ing-wen promoting cryptocurrency. With advances in deepfake technology and rising tensions across the strait, cognitive warfare through fake media will only get worse. One expert says that digital watermarks and attention to detail can help one distinguish real from fake.

Su Tzu-yun
Institute for National Defense and Security Research
There are sometimes built-in watermarks that can be used to verify authenticity. Secondly, for videos without watermarks, look at the fine details. In today’s deepfake videos, many of the subtle details are glossed over.

According to the defense ministry, disinformation is especially rampant around the time of the Han Kuang war games.

Sun Li-fang
Defense ministry spokesperson
Around the time of the Han Kuang exercises, we tend to see more false information in circulation. But due to our efforts to combat false information over the years, we’ve been able to reduce its spread and its public impact in the country.

As warfare adopts new technologies, Taiwan is bolstering its defenses against China’s latest tactics.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53

澤倫斯基遭"深偽變臉"傳播假訊息國軍提高警覺

2024-07-16

深偽技術越來越強大，明星遭變造時有所聞，甚至連政治人物也受害，像烏克蘭總統澤倫斯基，就曾遭變造要自家軍隊投降。總統賴清德、前總統蔡英文也都曾遭變造。軍事專家指出，深偽技術運用在軍事上，可以誤導敵方，產生錯假訊息，干擾民心意志。軍方已經提高警覺，還透露，每到漢光演習，假訊息就特別多。

烏克蘭總統澤倫斯基，喊話自己軍隊投降，但臉部僵硬，聲音也和嘴形對不起來，原來這是透過深偽製成的假影片。

[[國防院國防戰略與資源研究所長蘇紫雲]]
“(目的)影響民心士氣，情報上也可以運用誤導敵方，相關情報判讀，產生錯假情報”

美國總統拜登也曾遭變造，連台灣也沒倖免。

今年大選前，網路上就流傳時任副總統賴清德、總統蔡英文的深偽影片，鼓吹投資加密貨幣。隨著深偽技術越來越強大，台海情勢緊張，假訊息、假影片認知作戰，只會越來越多。學者指出，可透過數位浮水印、觀察細節，仔細分辨。

[[國防院國防戰略與資源研究所長蘇紫雲]]
“內建浮水印來識別真假，第二對於沒有浮水印影片，則可以從細節端倪去看，因為目前深偽影片，有很多對細節還是會有錯失”

軍方也透露，每到漢光演習，假訊息就特別多。

[[國防部發言人孫立方]]
“尤其在漢光演習期間，我們依據往年經驗可以發現，確實假訊息比較多，但經過這些年我們整體反制假訊息努力，我們發現它在國內的傳散率，對民眾影響力都有衰退的狀況”

隨著戰爭逐漸漸走向科技化，相關部門極力提升反制技術，因應中國對台無孔不入的認知作戰。

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A green bitter melon in a bottle. This Kinmen couple run an organic farm, and have just launched a new bitter melon bottling offer. Under the guidance of the farmers, visitors can experience putting a baby bitter melon in a bottle.

The farm owner demonstrates first. The bitter melon has to grow up inside the bottle from its first days. It looks simple, but it’s hard to do in practice. You have to watch out for the exact position of the melon in the bottle, and the string that it’s tied on also needs to be just the right length, otherwise the melon might not grow well. After the bottling is finished, the mature bitter melon can be seen flourishing about two weeks later.

Member of public
I just realized that it’s actually very detailed work. You need to put it in the kaoliang liquor bottle when it’s still very small. And then you tie it up, so that was quite a surprise.

The farmer says that many Kinmen residents have bitter melon liquor at home. Visitors wonder how such a big melon gets inside the bottle. The farm grows organic produce, and right now is better melon season. So they decided to offer this bottling experience as a form of education as well as a fun leisure activity.

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We’ve always seen bottles of bitter melon liquor in homes. And it so happens that we’re an organic farm and we’ve grown organic farms for a long time, so we thought, “Can we combine our farming experiences with this?” And it’s a very meaningful way to promote our work locally in Kinmen.

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Indian spices, masalas, snacks, and more Indian products are on display. Rakesh Madanlal Bohra and his brother moved to Taiwan in 1990 to start a computer company. While working at the computer company, he discovered a growing demand from his Indian clients for Indian and vegetarian food.

Rakesh Madanlal Bohra
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We found difficult that clients used to ask for vegetarian food because most of the Indian clientele is vegetarian. To support them we started having one of the rooms actually in our computer business for Indian food products. This is how our journey started for Indian food products. Over the years, we found that more and more Indian people stated coming to our store and asking for more and more products. We started with a journey of probably a few products. Maybe 10 products. Today, we have almost 700 products in our range to support totally all Indians.

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We came here probably in the early 90s, there was only one Indian restaurant in Taiwan. Just because we started bring in the masalas, the spices and the masalas which is basically a combination of vairous spices. We found that many restaurants thought that using the masala they can start their restaurant business. Today, we have more than 100 Indian restaurants in Taiwan. It is just because of the reason that we started bringing masalas. It helped them to start their business. Since there is collaboration between India and Taiwan, they are thinking of bringing in a lot of Indians. Whether it is skilled labor or unskilled labor. We are thinking it is our responsibility to start more and more stores and support them.

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Every time Taiwan FDA. Whenever we import food products, many of our food gets rejected. We are discussing with the Indian counterparts telling them that let’s get those products that comply with Taiwan FDA regulations. This is one of the areas where we lose a lot of money actually. This is the biggest challenge but we are trying our best to get the best of the products which are in compliance with the Taiwan FDA as well as can help Indian people over here.

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