Digital deception at scale: Doppelganger, spamouflage and pink slime
Synopsis
Disinformation isn’t just a social or political issue—it’s now a core tactic in state-sponsored cyber operations, designed to destabilise democracies, distort truth, and undermine trust in digital systems. As cyber professionals, understanding how adversaries weaponise information is critical to defending the broader threat landscape.
This session explores the cyber tradecraft behind modern disinformation operations, offering a deep dive into two of the most prolific influence networks: Russia’s Doppelgänger campaign, which uses cloned media sites and spoofed domains to inject false narratives, and China’s Spamouflage network, a sprawling ecosystem of fake personas and AI-generated content used to push propaganda at scale.
But disinformation isn’t just about state actors. We’ll go hands-on to show just how easy it is for anyone—from hacktivists to criminals—to launch a “pink slime” website: fake news platforms that look real, cost next to nothing to build, and can auto-generate convincing content using today’s AI tools.
Attendees will walk away with a clear understanding of:
If you thought disinformation was just a content problem, think again. This is information warfare by cyber means. The next threat wave is already here.