I recently had a LinkedIn Live conversation with Wasim Khaled, Blackbird.AI CEO, about the key takeaways of our recently-published RAV3N Report: 2026 State of Disinformation Narrative Intelligence and the landscape is stark: Generative AI has compressed the cost and scale of narrative manipulation to the point where a single operator can execute what once required large teams, and the legacy monitoring tools most organizations still depend on (keyword tracking, sentiment analysis) are trivial to manipulate. Nearly 60% of surveyed organizations report that narrative attacks have affected them, yet fewer than 20% of leaders express strong confidence in their ability to detect them. Wasim argued that narrative risk is equivalent to, and sometimes greater than, ransomware and data breaches.

The full report is here, and the LinkedIn Live conversation is here.

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I recently published a story on ZDNet about AI hacking that examines four critical vulnerabilities threatening AI systems across industries and explains why most have no known fixes.

Autonomous AI agents are being hijacked to conduct cyberattacks without human intervention. In September, Anthropic disclosed that Chinese state-sponsored hackers weaponized its Claude Code tool to autonomously conduct reconnaissance, write exploit code, and exfiltrate data from approximately 30 targets. Security researcher Bruce Schneier put it plainly: we have zero agentic AI systems that are secure against these attacks.

Prompt injection, identified as a vulnerability several years ago, remains a significant architectural challenge for many modern AI systems, with few solutions. A recent study found that a significant percentage of attacks succeeded across all tested large language models, with larger and more capable models performing no better than smaller ones. There is no parameterized query equivalent for AI, the way there is for SQL injection. The flaw is structural.

Training data can be poisoned for as little as $60, with just 250 corrupted documents enough to backdoor any LLM regardless of its size. Unlike prompt injection, which exploits a model at inference time, data poisoning corrupts the model itself. The backdoor may already be sitting in production systems, dormant until triggered.

Deepfake fraud has already stolen tens of millions of dollars. A finance worker at Arup wired $25.6 million after a video call during which everyone on screen, including his CFO, appeared to be AI-generated. Detection technology can help, but the problem scales as the technology becomes more sophisticated and lower-cost. And recent research found that humans correctly identify high-quality deepfakes only 24.5% of the time.

The common problem across all four threats is that the capabilities that make AI useful are the ones attackers exploit. Organizations are deploying systems with fundamental flaws while threat actors are already weaponizing them at scale, and the gap between adoption and security is only widening.

Read the full story on ZDNet

Coordinated narrative attacks destabilize elections, erode public trust in institutions, and give nation-state actors a low-cost, scalable weapon. Agentic AI has accelerated the problem. Autonomous systems can now plan, generate, and iterate platform manipulation with minimal human oversight, manufacturing viral crises from fabricated content faster than governments, organizations, companies, or leaders can respond.

Disinformation narrative intelligence focuses on understanding these threats. It combines network analysis, manipulation detection, threat actor attribution, and influence measurement to map how harmful narratives form, the cohorts driving them, and how they spread across platforms. The core work is determining whether amplification is organic or engineered, identifying the actors behind coordinated campaigns, and assessing narrative risk before they cause real-world harm. The field is evolving fast, shaped by agentic AI by attackers and defenders.

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My work at Blackbird.AI positions me between artificial intelligence engineers, intelligence analysts, and executives. The RAV3N Report: 2026 State of Disinformation Narrative Intelligence draws from our latest narrative intelligence research, AI analysis of online social manipulation, and a survey of top security executives about emerging threats. The findings confirm what many of us have suspected: narrative attacks have crossed from theoretical concern to operational reality.

You can download and read the report here.

Narrative intelligence emerged as one of the fastest-growing cybersecurity categories this year. I work as the fulcrum between Blackbird.AI’s RAV3N research intelligence team and our AI engineers. In 2025, we watched as AI systems evolved from criminal tools to autonomous operators capable of executing complete attack campaigns without human oversight. Narrative attacks also targeted executives,

Blackbird.AI’s Narrative Intelligence platform detects these attacks by analyzing manipulated narratives, identifying threat actors, mapping amplification networks, flagging bot and autonomous behavior, and documenting the communities that connect them. And our RAV3N research team interprets data in granular detail for high-profile partners. Their analysis revealed coordinated campaigns, synthetic media, and influence networks that moved faster than crisis communications teams could respond.

The full scope of RAV3N research is documented in our annual Narrative Intelligence roundup blog post. These are some of the most significant narrative attacks of 2025:

Hijacked AI Agent Signals New Normal

Chinese state-sponsored hackers hijacked Anthropic’s Claude AI and weaponized it against 30 organizations. The AI agent scanned networks, identified high-value databases, wrote exploit code, harvested credentials, and exfiltrated data. Human operators intervened at only four to six junctures across the entire operation. Claude performed thousands of operations per second, something human hackers could never match. The attackers tricked the AI by breaking malicious objectives into small, innocuous-looking requests and instructing Claude to behave as a cybersecurity employee conducting authorized penetration testing.

AI Is Now the Operator: The End of Human-Led Cyberattacks

AI systems now conduct reconnaissance, identify vulnerabilities, craft exploitation strategies, and execute complete extortion campaigns without human intervention. Hospitals received demands exceeding half a million dollars from AI-generated ransomware that adapted its approach based on network topology. North Korean operators use AI to secure legitimate positions at major corporations, handling technical interviews, submitting code reviews, and participating in team communications while harvesting intelligence. Ransomware construction kits sell for several hundred dollars and include military-grade encryption and endpoint detection bypass mechanisms.

Disinformation Security and Narrative Intelligence

Narrative intelligence became one of the fastest-growing cybersecurity categories in 2025. Executives recognized that narrative attacks targeting their companies and leaders represent a critical threat vector that traditional security tools cannot detect. Publicly traded companies lose approximately $39 billion annually to narrative-attack-related stock market losses. Most organizations still treat narrative attacks as communications problems rather than security threats. Firewalls do not stop deepfakes. Endpoint detection cannot identify coordinated bot campaigns. Security information and event management systems lack visibility into perception manipulation occurring on social platforms.

AI Actor Tilly and Hollywood’s Manipulated Narratives

An AI-generated actor named Tilly Norwood debuted and triggered seven distinct manipulated narratives. Blackbird.AI found 36 percent of actor posts emphasized identity theft concerns. 28 percent of conversations targeted agencies as traitors. Significant bot-like activity amplified debates about labor displacement, training data ethics, and union governance. SAG-AFTRA condemned the synthetic performer. The case demonstrates how AI-driven controversy generates overlapping narrative attacks across multiple vectors simultaneously. Questions arose about intellectual property, likeness rights, and contractual frameworks governing synthetic talent.

Narrative Attacks Threaten to Hijack the Taylor Swift Travis Kelce Engagement

The celebrity announcement became a manipulation study. Blackbird.AI identified five coordinated narratives: PR-stunt allegations, NFL conspiracy theories, misogynistic attacks, prediction-market exploitation, and partisan political framing. Traders wagered more than $250,000 on engagement-related bets. Probability markets surged from 25 percent to 45 percent hours before the public announcement. Individual traders reportedly made more than $3,000 in a single day buying shares just before the news broke. The incident triggered debates about profiting from private relationship milestones and raised regulatory questions about information leakage.

How a Coordinated Narrative Attack Shook U.S. Banking Trust

The #TheBanksAreOutOfMoney hashtag flooded social media following new tariff announcements. Blackbird.AI analysis found 17.2 percent of accounts displayed bot-like behavior. Coordinated actors circulated doctored Bloomberg-style screenshots showing false liquidity crises. Non-attributable burner accounts shared repetitive meme-style content with overlapping hashtags. A single post calling for people to withdraw funds while they still can was widely circulated by both real users and bots. The campaign triggered genuine withdrawal concerns before banks could respond and demonstrated how brittle trust can be when subjected to well-timed narrative attacks.

Narrative Attacks Manipulate Public Perception of Aviation Safety

High-profile incidents triggered coordinated reputation attacks against airlines. False claims spread about maintenance practices, regulatory failures, and negligence. Following the midair collision between a Blackhawk helicopter and an airliner at DCA, Blackbird.AI detected a 60 percent spike in fear-of-flying mentions. Negative narratives on social media spiked 64 percent. News reports on aviation safety concerns rose 30 percent. Bad actors exploited public fear to damage industry reputation, demonstrating how safety-sensitive industries face coordinated reputation attacks during crisis events.

How Sunscreen Became a Target of Narrative Attacks in Summer 2025

An unlikely product became a narrative attack target. Coordinated campaigns spread claims about health risks, environmental harm, and misleading product standards. Consumer trust eroded. Regulatory scrutiny increased. Brands found themselves defending not just their products but scientific consensus itself. The case demonstrated how information campaigns can weaponize health and safety concerns against entire product categories. Consumer products companies learned that narrative vulnerability extends beyond corporate reputation to the fundamental trust consumers place in product safety.

Traditional security tools cannot detect these narrative attacks and won’t prevent deepfakes or identify coordinated amplification campaigns. The attack surface is now public perception. Organizations still treating narrative threats as communications problems will find themselves responding to crises that began and ended before anyone registered an alert.

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During a recent Blackbird.AI LinkedIn Live, Greg Young and I explored how organizations can detect early warning signals of narrative emergencies and determine when to engage versus stay silent.

The key insight: effective response requires understanding not just what narratives exist, but who drives them. Organizations must distinguish whether criticism comes from actual customers or external groups with separate agendas.

Traditional vetting fails to capture the full spectrum of influencer risk. Technology must augment human analysis to monitor niche podcasts, alternative forums, and dark web spaces where controversial views often surface.

Nike’s Kaepernick partnership demonstrates this approach. Despite boycott calls, Nike understood their core customers supported Kaepernick and emerged with strengthened brand loyalty.

Organizations that shift from reactive monitoring to proactive narrative intelligence transform reputation management from desperate defense to strategic advantage.

WATCH

Some stories appeared so bizarre that they initially seemed harmless. Yet across history, even the most implausible narratives have shaped collective belief systems, influenced social and political behavior, and produced tangible real-world outcomes.

In this Halloween special, Blackbird.AI’s Dan Patterson examined how unconventional narratives emerged, circulated, and evolved into forces capable of affecting both private enterprises and national stability. What often began as parody or satire could rapidly transform into an influence mechanism that undermined institutional trust and disrupted social cohesion.

The session offered a critical, research-driven discussion that combined analytical insight with healthy skepticism, illustrating why the study of narrative intelligence had become an essential discipline for organizations seeking to remain informed, adaptable, and resilient amid today’s complex information environment.

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I recently published a story for ZDNet about narrative attacks, with practical tips and tools to help spot online information manipulation.

Why 'narrative attacks' matter more than ever

Narrative attacks, as research firm Forrester defines them, are the new frontier of cybersecurity: AI-powered manipulations or distortions of information that exploit biases and emotions, like disinformation campaigns on steroids.

I use the term "narrative attacks" deliberately. Terms like "disinformation" feel abstract and academic, while "narrative attack" is specific and actionable. Like cyberattacks, narrative attacks demonstrate how bad actors exploit technology to inflict operational, reputational, and financial harm.

Think of it this way: A cyber attack exploits vulnerabilities in your technical infrastructure. A narrative attack exploits vulnerabilities in your information environment, often causing financial, operational, or reputational harm. This article provides you with practical tools to identify narrative attacks, verify suspicious information, and safeguard yourself and your organization. We'll cover detection techniques, verification tools, and defensive strategies that work in the real world.

A perfect storm of technology, tension, and timing

Several factors have created the ideal conditions for narrative attacks to flourish. These dynamics help explain why we're seeing such a surge right now:

• AI tools have democratized content creation. Anyone can generate convincing fake images, videos, and audio clips using freely available software. The technical barriers that once limited sophisticated narrative campaigns have largely disappeared.

• Social media platforms fragment audiences into smaller, more isolated communities. Information that might have been quickly debunked in a more diverse media environment can circulate unopposed within closed groups. Echo chambers amplify false narratives while insulating curated groups.

• Content moderation systems struggle to keep pace with the volume and sophistication of synthetic media. Platforms rely heavily on automated detection, which consistently lags behind the latest manipulation techniques. Human reviewers cannot examine every piece of content at scale.

Meanwhile, bad actors are testing new playbooks, combining traditional propaganda techniques with cutting-edge technology and cyber tactics to create faster, more targeted, and more effective manipulation campaigns.

READ

Last week, on This Week in Tech, we talked about the business of video games, Apple’s decision to include an ad tied to their F1 movie promotion in the Wallet app, and AI regulation policy. The Supreme Court delivered two significant rulings that will reshape internet policy, allowing low-income broadband funding to continue while simultaneously upending established internet law in ways that raise serious questions. Meanwhile, Meta and Anthropic scored victories in copyright lawsuits, though the wins come with important limitations and don't resolve the bigger question of when AI-generated content might actually infringe on copyrights.

WATCH

Last week, I hosted a webinar conversation between cybersecurity expert and author Dr. Bilyana Lilly and Blackbird.AI co-founder and CEO Wasim Khaled about narrative attacks targeting executives and influencers, brands, and government organizations.

Unlike traditional hacks, these attacks weaponize perception, using bots, deepfakes, and AI-generated content to erode trust and trigger real-world consequences like stock drops and reputational collapse.

The key takeaway? Organizations must treat narrative threats like cyber threats: with detection tools, incident playbooks, and cross-functional response teams. As Khaled said, “Soon, no org will operate without narrative defense—just like no one runs without a firewall.”

Watch the full webinar here →

I recently wrote an article for ZDNet with easy-to-understand advice to lock down your phone’s security and privacy.

In June 2017, as NotPetya malware ripped through Ukraine's business and government technology infrastructure, I reported from the capital, Kyiv, for ZDNET's then-sibling publication TechRepublic, moderating panel discussions about geopolitical cyber defense at the Global Cybersecurity Summit. The city was a charming, modern startup hub with innovative thinkers and smart technology.

It was also a hacker trap. The town itself was safe, but targeted with a blend of kinetic and digital attacks by hyper-polarized geopolitical actors. Key hacks included blackouts from power grid attacks in 2015 and 2016 and the NotPetya malware, which started in Ukraine and spread globally. Ukraine's State Treasury was also targeted, which infected military systems and disrupted government sites, especially during the 2022 invasion.

From taking notes to shooting video and audio, I needed my phone to report. Smartphones are essential tools; they're also security and privacy liabilities. In today's expanding surveillance and threat environment, which is full of opportunistic cyberattacks, corporate tracking, and invasive government scrutiny, locking down your phone is smart and often necessary.

Read on ZDNet: 7 ways to lock down your phone's security - before it's too late.

I’m now lead comms at Blackbird.AI. If you’re covering disinformation, narrative manipulation, or deepfakes, please reach out. I’m happy to share research data and use cases or set up a briefing with our CEO, Wasim Khaled, or one of our narrative intelligence analysts.

We just launched NarrativePULSE, a fast, AI-powered tool designed to help organizations monitor and understand harmful narratives and deepfakes. It offers a clear starting point for teams looking to assess emerging risks without the overhead of a full-scale threat intelligence platform.

For more info, here’s the datasheet and the blog.

I recently published an article for ZDNet about the rapid growth of artificial intelligence as a cyber weapon.

Cybercriminals are weaponizing artificial intelligence (AI) across every attack phase. Large language models (LLMs) craft hyper-personalized phishing emails by scraping targets' social media profiles and professional networks. Generative adversarial networks (GAN) produce deepfake audio and video to bypass multi-factor authentication. Automated tools like WormGPT enable script kiddies to launch polymorphic malware that evolves to evade signature-based detection.

These cyber attacks aren't speculative, either. Organizations that fail to develop their security strategies risk being overrun by an onslaught of hyper-intelligent cyber threats -- in 2025 and beyond.

Read the full story at ZDNet

Last week, I joined four communication experts—Qualcomm's Kristin Stiles, Mozilla's Sarah Vasquez, and VCA Animal Hospital's Joseph Campbell—for Muck Rack’s “State of AI 2025” podcast. Our panel discussed the rapid integration of generative AI in public relations and corporate communications. We explored the adoption of AI and practical applications, like tools for drafting pitches and press releases. We addressed concerns like the environmental impact of artificial intelligence and the necessity for clear AI usage policies.

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Last week on This Week in Tech I joined host Leo Laporte with guests Shoshana Weissmann and Christina Warren to discuss emerging technology headlines, including OpenAI’s latest model, O3-Mini, and CEO Sam Altman’s reflections on open-source practices. We also explore the European Union’s ban on AI systems deemed to have ‘unacceptable risk’ and OpenAI’s collaboration with U.S. National Laboratories on scientific research and nuclear security. Bonus: The return of my favorite smartwatch, the Pebble!

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In 2025, AI will reshape cybersecurity. Ransomware is evolving from mere extortion to targeted data manipulation, AI-driven narrative threats are proliferating across the social web, and supply chain attacks are rising due to our hyperconnected global economy. Yet AI also powers transformative opportunities, with agentic systems automating work and accelerating innovation.

I spoke with a broad spectrum of enterprise cybersecurity experts about how AI will transform cybersecurity in 2025.

Read now at ZDNet

This week on TWiT, our panel—an unofficial CNET reunion featuring Abrar Al-Heeti and Lisa Eadicicco—rhapsodized about Apple’s iPod 23rd anniversary, and an AI-powered painting selling for $1.1 million. Other topics include AI’s influence on election polarization, YouTube’s dominance on Election Day, Dogecoin’s rise, Detroit’s acceptance of crypto for taxes, and OpenAI’s recent legal victory. We also chatted about AI and cybersecurity partnerships, changes on platforms like Roblox.

WATCH

The outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election will significantly impact the technology industry, shaping policies around AI regulation, cybersecurity, privacy, Big Tech antitrust, crypto, and more.

For ZDNet, I wrote about how voters will select how the U.S. navigates the challenges, disruption, and opportunities of emerging tech.

Read now at ZDNet

More than 70 nations—about half the world’s population—conducted an election in 2024.

Blackbird.AI’s RAV3N team examined how AI-enabled disinformation tactics—deepfakes, bot networks, and social flooding, for example—reshape elections worldwide by exploiting societal vulnerabilities, amplifying false narratives, and eroding public trust in democratic institutions. Analyzing millions of posts, our teams identified coordinated attacks designed to sway voter perception and destabilize elections. Bad actors leverage emerging technologies to overwhelm fact-checkers and target audiences with emotionally charged, misleading content.

I collaborated with our RAV3N intelligence team and AI engineers throughout the year to identify and understand narrative attack and disinformation tactics. What's fascinating is that bad actors worldwide use the same techniques. TLDR: artificial intelligence and disinformation are reshaping democracy in real-time.

Read more.

My friend and producer Katherine Niemczyk produced a handful of new video clips for Blackbird AI. The videos look great and help articulate the cybersecurity challenges of narrative attacks created by misinformation and disinformation. The script and VO is pretty good too. 😜

Narrative attacks spread rapidly, causing significant financial and reputational damage. Traditional cybersecurity and threat intelligence systems often fail to detect these attacks. Constellation and Compass by Blackbird.AI are designed to help companies and public-sector organizations detect and understand these emerging threats.