Full Report
Disinformation is no longer just a nuisance. It’s a weapon leveraged by both state and non-state actors. For information operations analysts tracking influence campaigns across elections, national security threats, and coordinated disinformation efforts, the challenge is growing. Whether you work in a government agency, intelligence service, election security organization, or corporate trust and safety team, the tools at your disposal were not built for this fight.
Analysis Summary
# Best Practices: Disinformation Defense & The DISARM Framework
## Overview
These practices address the growing threat of coordinated influence operations (IO) and disinformation campaigns. By applying the DISARM (Disinformation Analysis and Response Mapping) Framework—the information-operations equivalent of MITRE ATT&CK—organizations can move from ad-hoc monitoring to structured, machine-readable threat intelligence.
## Key Recommendations
### Immediate Actions
1. **Adopt a Standardized Taxonomy:** Stop using internal/informal labels for disinformation. Adopt the DISARM Framework tactics (e.g., *Develop Content*, *Maximize Exposure*) to ensure all analysts speak the same language.
2. **Audit Current Tooling:** Assess if your current Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP) or monitoring tools support STIX 2.1 to ensure interoperability with DISARM data.
3. **Tag Observed Behaviors:** Begin tagging known IO behaviors (e.g., bot amplification, AI narrative generation, meme warfare) using specific DISARM technique IDs in your current reports.
### Short-term Improvements (1-3 months)
1. **Integrate DISARM into TIP:** Deploy a platform (like EclecticIQ 3.7+) that provides native DISARM support to automate the mapping of influence tactics.
2. **Establish Behavioral Signatures:** Use visual tools such as heatmaps and graph views to identify recurring combinations of techniques used by specific threat actors.
3. **Formalize Intelligence Exporting:** Configure workflows to export disinformation intelligence in STIX 2.1 or EIQ-JSON formats to facilitate sharing with trust and safety partners.
### Long-term Strategy (3+ months)
1. **Cross-Functional Collaboration:** Bridge the gap between cybersecurity (CISO) and Communications/Trust & Safety teams by using DISARM as a unified framework for incident response.
2. **Predictive Analysis:** Build a historical database of DISARM-mapped campaigns to anticipate adversary shifts and proactive "pre-bunking" opportunities.
3. **Automated Response Planning:** Develop response playbooks triggered by specific DISARM technique clusters (e.g., if "AI-generated video" + "Coordinated bot amplification" are detected, trigger immediate platform escalation).
## Implementation Guidance
### For Small Organizations
- **Focus on Manual Mapping:** Use the open-source DISARM framework documentation to manually categorize threats.
- **Prioritize Awareness:** Ensure the internal communications team understands the "red flags" of coordinated amplification.
### For Medium Organizations
- **Centralize Data:** Use a dedicated TIP to store disinformation indicators alongside traditional cyber threat intelligence (CTI).
- **Network Sharing:** Join Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) that utilize STIX 2.1 for sharing IO threat data.
### For Large Enterprises / Government
- **Scale with Automation:** Leverage native DISARM integrations to automatically correlate disparate campaigns across multiple social media platforms.
- **Intelligence Fusion:** Integrate DISARM metadata into executive dashboards to provide a real-time "Influence Threat Level" for leadership.
## Configuration Examples
*While specific code varies by platform, the following data structure is recommended for STIX 2.1 compliance:*
json
{
"type": "attack-pattern",
"spec_version": "2.1",
"name": "Coordinated Bot Amplification",
"external_references": [
{
"source_name": "DISARM",
"external_id": "T00xx"
}
],
"description": "Adversary uses automated accounts to maximize exposure of a specific narrative."
}
## Compliance Alignment
- **DISARM Framework:** The primary standard for describing Disinformation TTPs.
- **STIX 2.1 / TAXII:** The standard for structuring and transporting threat intelligence.
- **NIST CSF:** Can be aligned under "Detect" and "Respond" functions for reputation and information integrity.
## Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- **Ad-Hoc Tagging:** Avoid creating custom tags that don't map to a framework; this creates "intelligence silos" that cannot be shared.
- **Siloed Intelligence:** Treating disinformation as purely a PR issue rather than a structured security threat.
- **Ignoring Hybrid Threats:** Failing to recognize when a cyberattack (e.g., a data breach) is being used as the "fuel" for a DISARM-mapped influence operation.
## Resources
- **DISARM Framework Documentation:** [https://www.disarmframework[.]org/]
- **EclecticIQ Intelligence Center:** [https://www.eclecticiq[.]com/products/intelligence-center]
- **STIX/TAXII Standards:** [https://oasis-open[.]github.io/cti-documentation/]