Technical Deception

Obfuscation
Technical deception involves fabricating digital trust signals—such as synthetic identities, forged documents, spoofed infrastructure, and AI-generated media—to conceal the origin of influence operations and make false content appear authentic.
Author
Affiliation

E. Rosalie Li

Information Epidemiology Lab

Published

February 17, 2026

Obfuscation

Technical deception involves fabricating digital trust signals—such as synthetic identities, forged documents, spoofed infrastructure, and AI-generated media—to conceal the origin of influence operations and make false content appear authentic.

FIMI Taxonomy by Information Epidemiology Lab.

Citation

BibTeX citation:
@article{li2026,
  author = {Li, E. Rosalie},
  title = {Technical {Deception}},
  date = {2026-02-17},
  url = {https://fimi.infoepi.org/mechanisms/technical-deception.html},
  langid = {en}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Li, E. Rosalie. 2026. “Technical Deception,” February. https://fimi.infoepi.org/mechanisms/technical-deception.html.