Cyfluence Research Center

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Cyfluence Research Center

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We look at the world through the lens of digital influence.

08/10/2026

Digital democracy, information integrity, and young Indonesians' role in shaping the digital environment were central to last Thursday's discussion.

Cyfluence Research Center was represented by Assyifa Zahra Namira as a panelist at Digital Democracy & Information Ecosystem Integrity: What Does It Mean for Young People? We thank SAFEnet - Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network and Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom for bringing together this important and timely conversation.
Alongside fellow panelists Ika Ningtyas and Maria Stela Clarisa Nau, and moderated by Eno Liska Walini, the discussion explored what digital democracy looks like in practice, the integrity of Indonesia's information ecosystem, and the challenges young people face in navigating an increasingly complex digital environment.
As an international research organization working on hostile influence operations across multiple countries and regions, CRC brought a comparative perspective to the conversation, highlighting how the patterns of information manipulation observed in Indonesia closely mirror tactics documented in other countries across the globe.
The discussion offered an opportunity to connect young Indonesians' experience with these broader patterns and to think more critically about what they mean for young people navigating today's information landscape.

07/10/2026

A week ago, an important conversation took place at a Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom event, "Propaganda, Influence and Silent War: How Autocracies Target Democratic Societies", focused on Russian and Chinese hostile influence operations and lessons from Malaysia for Germany.
CRC Research Director Eilon Bendet and Threat Researcher Thiemo Feldmann joined experts from FNF and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue to discuss information disorder, hybrid threats, and approaches to strengthening cognitive security and societal resilience.
Many thanks to FNF for organizing and hosting this important discussion.

06/10/2026

Cities are not just physical spaces. They are information battlegrounds.
We are pleased to introduce the contributors behind Chapter 5 and Chapter 6

Chapter 5 brings four researchers whose combined expertise spans cybersecurity, digital infrastructure, policy, and regional technology governance: Dr. Pratama Persadha, Dr. Drs. Slamet Aji Pamungkas, Farhana Ariffin, and Florence Principe Gamboa.
Their work examines how urban digital infrastructure is increasingly exposed to cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and what this means for cities navigating the intersection of rapid digitalization, governance challenges, and emerging threats across the Asia-Pacific region.

On the other hand, Chapter 6 brings together researchers who excel at information disorder, public narratives, and urban trust: M. Yusuf Samad, Zesta Adzel, Kenneth Tze Wui Lee, PhD, Razwana Begum A., Fuji Aotari,. Maria Elize Mendoza, Engelbertus Wendratama, Viet Tho Le PhD
Their work will examine how urban trust is shaped and how the information ecosystem plays a huge role in it.

We are grateful for their scholarly contributions to this chapter and to the broader conversation on building resilient and secure urban digital ecosystems.

05/10/2026

CRC is heading to in Vilnius!

Our Urban Cyfluence Lab Director, Nur Mawaddah, will attend , hosted by EU DisinfoLab, to connect with our colleagues and stakeholders working on Influence Defence, cognitive security, and the evolving hybrid threat landscape.

If you are attending , let us know!

05/10/2026

CRC at the German Intelligence Community Conference!

Two weeks ago, our director, Florian Frank, joined the panel on hybrid threats alongside Thiemo Feldmann from our CRC team, showcasing our work and highlighting the growing importance of the information sphere and cognitive warfare within the broader hybrid threat landscape.

Thank you to Ole Donner for organizing this important event, which is now firmly established as one of Germany's most influential intelligence conferences.

02/10/2026

How does Japan’s media ecosystem shape the spread of (dis-)information -- and where does it create openings for hostile influence?

A comprehensive study by Ririko Hirase maps information flows across Japan’s media landscape, combining qualitative and quantitative analysis to identify structural vulnerabilities and cognitive attack surfaces that can facilitate information disorder and create opportunities for hashtag .

Using Japanese media coverage during the early phase of the Israel–Gaza conflict as its primary case study, the research examines the inherent dynamics shaping how information travels, transforms, and gains traction.

The key findings and recommendations help Cognitive Security stakeholders understand where vulnerabilities emerge, how hostile actors may exploit them, and how to mitigate them through policy and Influence Defense capacity building.

Read the Executive Summary here: https://www.cyfluence-research.org/post/information-flows-in-japans-media-ecosystem

Link to the full study: https://www.cyfluence-research.org/post/information-flows-in-japans-media-ecosystem-analyzing-narrative-formation

01/10/2026

During the last week, we observed, collected, and analyzed key developments related to cyber-based hostile influence campaigns (including Cyfluence attacks).

Highlighted Developments:
🏛️ Swiss authorities confirmed covert and open Russian interference before Switzerland's neutrality initiative vote, though the security secretariat doubts it was decisive.
⚠️ The Insider estimates that Russian propagandists posing as 'angry Latvians' control about one-third of Latvia's socio-political Telegram channels.
📱 Russian actors paired an AI-faked anti-corruption raid with a cloned NV news site to portray Ukraine as corrupt during US-Russia talks.
🌐 The EU sanctioned former RT France chief Xenia Fedorova for spreading Kremlin-aligned narratives through French media after RT's EU broadcasting suspension.

📌 The CRC Weekly Report is a summary of what we regard as the main events in the information environment.
Read full article here:
https://www.cyfluence-research.org/post/cyber-based-influence-campaigns-21st-27th-september-2026-report

24/09/2026

What do counter-FIMI frameworks overlook, and how can emotional readiness help people apply media literacy skills under pressure?

In this article, Tamara Klevova examines a gap in cognitive security practice: people may recognize manipulation techniques yet struggle to use what they have learned when fear, anger, or grief affects their judgment.

The article proposes “emotional readiness” as a trainable component of cognitive and societal resilience. It offers applicable steps to help targeted audiences recognize and regulate emotional reactions before evaluating potentially weaponized emotionally charged content.

Read the article: https://www.cyfluence-research.org/post/emotional-regulation-as-an-overlooked-dimension-of-information-manipulation-resilience

18/09/2026

How do autocracies attack democratic societies – and what can we do about it?

That was the question we explored last week in Hanover at the panel discussion "Propaganda, Influence, Silent War – How Autocrats Attack Democratic Societies."

Many thanks to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom for the invitation and the opportunity to present our work on this important topic – drawing on our study "Digital Influence Vectors in Malaysia," which shows how Russia and China use state media, digital influence networks, and targeted disinformation to shape public opinion in Southeast Asia, and what Germany and Europe can learn from it, since the same patterns are increasingly visible here too.

Thank you to all the participants for a great discussion and their valuable perspectives: Katrin Bannach (Head of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Malaysia & Indonesia), Reinhard Bingener (FAZ journalist), Patrick Döring (CEO of the WERTGARANTIE Group), and Moritz Mogwitz (moderator) – and to Jana Barrios Pedrajas and Lone Zumbrock for organizing such a successful evening.

Special congratulations to Reinhard Bingener on his new book "Der stille Krieg – Wie Autokraten Deutschland angreifen" ("The Silent War – How Autocrats Attack Germany") – an important and eye-opening read on a topic that concerns all of us.

17/09/2026

During the last week, we observed, collected, and analyzed key developments related to cyber-based hostile influence campaigns (including Cyfluence attacks).
Highlighted Developments:
🎭 Russia's Matryoshka operation expanded from European elections to the 2026 US midterms, deploying voice-cloned videos of five Hollywood celebrities in counterfeit CNN broadcasts targeting Democratic Senate candidates in Georgia, Ohio, and New Hampshire.
🤖 CCP influence operations across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and X used AI-generated personas to deepen US societal divisions ahead of the November 2026 midterms without advancing any single political objective.
🌍 The Center for an Informed Public and the Brennan Center independently characterized the 2026 midterm environment as qualitatively more dangerous than prior cycles, with sitting leadership repeating long-debunked election fraud claims and AI reducing the cost of targeted false-content generation to near zero.
⚠️ Anthropic's head of threat research Jacob Klein warned that current low engagement scores on disrupted influence campaigns understate the trajectory risk, predicting higher-breakout AI influence operations in the near or medium future as AI systems become better at chaining tasks and more persuasive.

📌 The CRC Weekly Report is a summary of what we regard as the main events in the information environment.

Read full article here: https://www.cyfluence-research.org/post/cyber-based-influence-campaigns-7th-13th-september-2026-report

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