Narrative Ops Are Cyber Ops | Mykolas Katkus on the New Threat Landscape

From Cyber Security District · 56:19

Show by Cyber Security District

In this episode of Cyber Security District, Jeroen sits down with Mykolas Katkus, co-founder of Rapsense, a Lithuanian AI platform that tracks narratives and coordinated influence activity across traditional and social media to detect propaganda, disinformation, and reputational attacks before they go viral. Mykolas spent over 20 years in strategic communications and public affairs before realizing that the same mechanisms used to build public opinion had become weapons. What was once gut instinct, knowing when to react and when to stay silent. is now a technical discipline and Rapsense makes it computable. This conversation bridges two worlds, the precision mindset of cybersecurity and the fluid, human terrain of narrative intelligence. If you thought information operations were only a government problem, this episode will change your view. In this episode, we explore: How Mykolas went from strategic communications to co-founding a narrative intelligence company What “narrative ops” actually means and how Russia has used them to infiltrate movements from MAGA to Lithuanian military policy The 18-hour window. what it is, why it matters, and what organizations must do before the clock starts Why debunking a narrative can make it spread faster Why doing nothing is sometimes the most strategic move How CISOs are uniquely positioned to think about narrative risk and what communications teams are still missing Timestamps: 00:00 – Introduction 01:30 – From communications to narrative intelligence: Mykolas’s origin story 06:00 – What are narrative ops? Tactics, targeting, and territory 13:00 – How Russia groomed fringe communities and why it worked 20:30 – The case of the Lithuanian military base at Kapčiamiestis 29:00 – The 18-hour window and what Rapsense found in NATO research 35:30 – What organizations must prepare before an attack starts 42:00 – When doing nothing is the right call 47:30 – Recovery: how do you rebuild narrative trust? 53:00 – Why CISOs should care about narrative intelligence 58:00 – Final message to CISOs worldwide Connect with the guest: Mykolas Katkus: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mykolaskatkus/ Website: https://Rapsense.ai/ Follow Cyber Security District: Laurens Jagt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurensjagt/ Jeroen Prinse on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jprinse/ Website: https://www.cybersecuritydistrict.com/ All channels & newsletter: https://beacons.ai/cybersecuritydistrict

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