SAN FRANCISCO, July 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zignal Labs today announced a powerful new solution that protects brands and executive reputations against malicious bot attacks. Zignal Bot Intelligence extends Zignal’s advanced media analytics capabilities to detect and alert companies whenever their reputations are at risk from bot-led disinformation and media manipulation campaigns. Starting today, this first-of-its-kind Bot Intelligence software will be available in Zignal’s suite of products.

Over the last few years, malicious actors have hijacked social conversations and the media landscape through automated bot networks. With a goal of spreading disinformation and sowing division, these bots have left a documented impact on American and international elections. Today, these same tactics are being harnessed to damage corporate brand reputations and market valuations. Based upon extensive media analysis of Fortune 1000 companies, Zignal Labs has found that virtually all businesses, regardless of size or industry, are potential prey to this malicious bot activity. Common bot and disinformation tactics include:

  • News Amplification to Fuel Controversies: In today’s politically polarized climate, high-profile cultural debates become prime bot targets. During the recent controversies involving celebrities Roseanne Barr and Samantha Bee, bots amplified the debate by retweeting key conversations and news stories. In fact, Zignal reports that over 60 percent of the online conversations about these two incidents originated from bots.  
  • Reputation Attacks to Impact Brand Standing: Bots often employ an effective tactic of recycling old news. As a result, a past crisis or bad news can resurface as breaking news, months or years after the original event. In September 2017, a high-profile CPG company was hit with a negative story. For the next six months, bots kept this story alive and prominent, ultimately fueling a steady stream of negative conversations and share of voice.   
  • Assaults to Impact Stock Price: For publicly traded companies, corporate reputation is closely linked to stock price. By targeting earnings day announcements and planting the seeds of disinformation, bots have the potential to wreak havoc on a company’s marketplace reputation and valuation. This tactic was recently leveraged against a large semiconductor company through suspicious behavior to impact the stock price. In this case, bots amplified and elevated an unverified cybersecurity report by an obscure source over a period of several days.

“Disinformation and media manipulation have become the new normal in our fast-paced digital media landscape,” said Josh Ginsberg, CEO and Co-Founder of Zignal Labs. “We’ve seen as much as sixty percent of a company’s media activity impacted by suspicious bot activity. As any company prepares to launch a new product, counter a crisis or announce financial results, it needs to be armed with new digital safeguards to build trust and protect its assets.”

To address this growing challenge, Zignal developed a patent-pending solution that combines machine learning with expert analysis for fast action. The Zignal Bot Intelligence solution:

  • Monitor and Detect: Through real-time analytics and machine learning, Zignal identifies bots and related bot networks. As part of this process, Zignal assesses the bot’s threat impact while updating a dynamic bot database.  
  • Visualize and Notify: Zignal’s rich visualizations and dynamic reporting capabilities details the severity and composition of the bot attack while providing early warning alerts to the appropriate teams.  
  • Act: Based upon data-driven insights about a specific bot attack, teams can plan their response strategy which may include proactive messaging or publicly calling attention to the attack.

Learn More To learn more about Zignal’s Bot Intelligence solution, go to: http://www.zignallabs.com/bots

Zignal is also hosting two webcasts about the emerging bot threat and best practices for defending against disinformation campaigns. To register, go to:

July 19, 2018 Zignal Webcast http://go.zignallabs.com/BewareOfBots

August 9, 2018 PRWeek/Zignal Webcast http://zign.al/BotsWebcast

About Zignal Labs Zignal Labs is reinventing how companies use media data to measure the brand and business impact of their communications. Through real-time and predictive analysis of the full-media spectrum, Zignal’s centralized platform empowers corporate communications, risk, marketing, investor relations, cyber security and executive teams to build and protect brand reputation, inform strategy and take action. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York City, and Washington DC, Zignal serves customers around the world including IBM, NVIDIA, Airbnb, Citrix, DTE Energy, The Sacramento Kings, Uber and FleishmanHillard. To learn more, visit: www.zignallabs.com .

Media Contacts:

Alex Wolff SKDKnickerbocker awolff@skdknick.com 202 464 6961

Nancy Boas Zignal Labs nancy.boas@zignallabs.com 415 683 7871 x399

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/Attachm...3a458470c7