“You don’t need to be hacked to be attacked.”

For years, disinformation has been treated as a geopolitical concern, a problem for elections, authoritarian regimes, and the darker corners of the internet. But that distinction is gone.

In 2025, disinformation is a corporate threat. Not theoretical. Not rare. Real. And it’s targeting CEOs, boards, supply chains, M&A activity, employee sentiment and brand credibility.

At Oakas, we work with clients who have faced coordinated disinformation campaigns, some driven by activists, some by hostile competitors, and others simply by chaos agents exploiting online virality.

Here’s the truth: if you think disinformation is someone else’s problem, you’re already behind.

The Playbook Has Shifted

You don’t need to breach a firewall or steal data to cause damage. You just need to:

• Seed a false rumour

• Target the right amplification nodes

• Wait for it to trend

We’ve seen this happen in multiple forms:

• Fake press releases about executive resignations

• AI-generated voice recordings of internal conversations

• False claims about product safety or political affiliations

• Doctored screenshots of “internal emails” suggesting scandal

• Hijacking of social media hashtags during a brand campaign

These attacks don’t rely on accuracy. They rely on speed, emotion, and shareability.

Why Businesses Are Vulnerable

1. Reputation is fragile in the age of speed

A brand can be damaged in hours long before any official statement is prepared. In the void, false narratives fill the gap.

2. Legal truth ≠ narrative truth

Even if a claim is legally false, it can still dominate the public conversation. Courts move slowly. Social media does not.

3. Most teams aren’t trained for narrative attack

Comms teams often plan for product issues, customer service, or the usual PR risks. But very few are prepared for intentional, coordinated narrative warfare especially when it crosses into deepfakes, anonymous leaks, or anonymous influence campaigns.

Real-World Case Snapshot (Anonymised)

A global consumer brand launched a high-profile sustainability campaign. Within 48 hours, anonymous accounts on X (formerly Twitter) began posting alleged internal documents suggesting the company’s carbon offsets were fraudulent.

The documents were fake but credible-looking.
The story was picked up by influencers before verification.
By the time the truth emerged, investor confidence had wavered, and a government inquiry had been requested.

The campaign was traced back to a third-party interest group opposed to new environmental regulations — using disinformation as a form of commercial pressure.

How to Prepare

At Oakas, we work with leadership teams to pre-empt, mitigate, and respond to disinformation threats using three key strategies:

1. Narrative Mapping

We identify the vulnerabilities in your public posture, campaigns, and values — not from a marketing perspective, but from an adversarial lens. What would someone twist? What assets could be manipulated?

2. Simulation & Crisis Testing

We run “disinformation fire drills” simulated narrative attacks that unfold in real time, pressure-testing:

• Speed of identification

• Internal coordination

• Legal–comms alignment

• Stakeholder messaging

• Counter-narrative options

3. Strategic Silence vs. Strategic Voice

Not every attack should be answered. Some should be drowned out. Some require legal escalation. Some demand proactive counter-positioning. The key is knowing which is which.

What Leaders Need to Know

• If you’re not mapping narrative risk, you’re exposed.

• If your comms team hasn’t faced a hostile simulation, they’ll be overwhelmed when it happens for real.

• If your board thinks “it can’t happen to us,” it probably already is.

Disinformation is not just noise. It’s targeted influence and it’s shaping markets, careers, and reputations.

Final Word

In the age of information warfare, silence is risky. But so is saying the wrong thing too fast.

We help organisations build the tools, protocols and resilience they need to respond wisely not reactively.