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Impostors at War

Impersonation is one of the oldest tactics in war, because it exploits our social nature and persists because humans are dependent on identities for cooperation. Worse, new technologies now make it possible to mimic faces, skin color, voices, and other features that have long given counterintelligence a fighting chance.

TURIN/OXFORD – Israel’s detonation of thousands of pagers held by Hezbollah fighters and loyalists in mid-September will be remembered as one of the most ingenious plots in the history of spycraft. It is also a reminder that the most powerful weapon in war is not a fighter jet, a drone, or even artificial intelligence, but rather something much older: impersonation.

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