2023 saw a slew of repetitional attacks on companies from SVB, to Zara, X, ITV to the BBC, NatWest, and many more. 

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The same tactics that were traditionally deployed to disrupt governments and societies are now being regularly targeted towards private sector organisations - tactics such as stock market manipulation, issue advocacy hijacking, attacks on brand reputation, and the use of social media to upset competitive dynamics.

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The fundamental issue is that most organisations, be it private and public, are ill-prepared to deal with these sophisticated attacks, where social media moves at warp speed and leaves them overwhelmingly vulnerable to disinformation attacks.

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There is a clear gap in current technology landscape that enables organisations to identify between real and the fake narratives online. Being able to identify, prioritise, and then mitigate the harmful effects of corrosive narratives is a must.

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A 2023 report by the communications agency Kekst CNC shows that 95% of FTSE 100 companies were impacted by non-credible reporting. In the first six months of the previous year over 100 websites known for spreading false or misleading narratives drove an estimated 9,650,000 million impressions and 348,000 shares on social media about FTSE100 businesses.

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Disinformation is impacting businesses' bottom-line, whether they are capable of quantifying it or not, it is happening! According to a 2019 report from cyber-security firm Cheq, the financial cost of disinformation on the global economy is $78bn per year. This figure will have increased exponentially since this report was released. So, why isn't it a higher priority for companies?

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While awareness around the topic of mis/disinformation and education on the subject is improving private sector organisations still do not have a place for it in their business or fully understand the threat. And, with the meteoric rise of GenAI attacks are set to increase.

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What can private sector organisations do to stay ahead of attacks?

1. Build this capability into their existing cyber-security & business resilience teams
2. Provide company-wide training to ensure everyone understands the threat
3. Up-skill the crisis communications team on how to deal with false narratives
4. Ensure emerging (false) narratives are shared among the entire organisation
5. Develop internal processes for responding to threats (red teaming / blue teaming)
6. Work with businesses that provide narrative monitoring

It sounds like a simple process, but we know that business leaders are under immense pressure to perform, and with a broadening attack vector for cyber threats it probably feels like a fairly low priority compared to DDoS, Phishing, Spoofing, Malware, DNS Tunnelling and many more. But, disinformation and false narrative campaigns are far from trivial! They can be incredibly hard-hitting like the Hong Kong bank defrauded of $25m following a bad actor impersonating the CEO or incredibly insidious seeking to undermine a business or a whole sector over a prolonged period causing devastating consequences. 

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Mitify+ is a disinformation detection and narrative threat intelligence platform that allows organisations to identify, analyse and prioritise narrative threats. We have developed ground-breaking AI models that can analyse the true context of online content, identify factual inaccuracies, shed light on political rhetoric, and provide users with the ability to predict the trajectory of narratives over time. 

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Author: Greig Dowling