Borrowed Legitimacy: Three Models of Credibility Abuse in Influence Operations

Hybrid threat actors increasingly exploit credibility in influence campaigns by posing as research institutes, news outlets, or open-source investigation platforms to appear trustworthy. This blog examines three models: OSINT investigation platforms, impersonated news outlets, and pseudo research institutes—all leveraging borrowed legitimacy to spread misleading narratives while disguising state-dictated agendas.