BRAND INTELLIGENCE AS A SOLUTION TO BRAND IMPERSONATION.
“Brand intelligence” is primarily concerned with safeguarding an organization’s digital presence. Brand threat intelligence systems collect and analyze data from public and digital platforms such as the surface, deep, and dark web, social media, mobile app stores, and others, with a singular focus on identifying threats to an organization’s brand, services, and data. Impersonations of brands and executives are common use cases, as are faked domains, account takeovers, phishing and fraud, credential compromise, and data leaking.
Cybercriminals have turned to digital brand impersonation for some reasons, which are that organizations lack the visibility and human resources to monitor their channels. Also, consumer adoption of digital channels has dramatically accelerated over the past year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of consumers shop on social media platforms, which has made social media become an extraordinarily effective method for advertising businesses. More than 90% of businesses use social media in some way to communicate with customers, build a digital brand presence with photos, content, and trademarks, and increase brand recognition. This intellectual property is easily exploited for malicious purposes through the creation of fake pages that resemble a brand’s official account for the publication of advertisements that redirect victims to fraudulent websites. The consumer has little cause to assume a threat when advertisements and links seem genuine. They are all crafted to trick employees and customers into authorizing money, transfers, or revealing login credentials or sensitive data.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), impersonation attacks have caused global losses of upwards of $5.3 billion. Impersonators often use the same photos, names, descriptions, posts, hashtags, etc. as the official accounts of the brand and its employees. It is also common for them to impersonate “support” or “customer service” pages or run raffles and promotions. The type of social network strongly determines the forms of impersonation. Impersonations of brand executives or employees are more common on social media platforms like LinkedIn, while on social media platforms like Facebook, impersonations are typically done through “Pages,” though they can occasionally also be done through “Profiles,” “Groups,” or “Events.” To correctly identify the various types of impersonation, it is crucial to comprehend how each platform functions and its target audience.
Organizations have suffered at least 50% of the following brand abuse:
- Counterfeiting
- Rogue websites
- Copyright infringement
- Trademark squatting
- Patent theft
- Social media impersonation
SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS TO BRAND IMPERSONATIONS
● Disclaimer Notice can be uploaded on your various platforms.
to make customers aware of imposters. an example of a disclaimer notice is this by capital field https://capitalfield.com/disclaimer-notice-online-impersonation-identity-theft/
● Enforce DMARC an email validation system designed to uncover and block anyone using a brand’s domain without authorization. The delivery of all unauthenticated mail prevents customers, partners, and employees from receiving emails from impersonators. It also proactively hunts for and takes down the domain and brand abuse.
● I strongly recommend https://nogofallmaga.org/ #NoGoFallMaga to endpoint users and organizations in order to get cyber awareness, the latest TTPs of cyber actors, cyber crime, preventive measures, reporting scams, and other cybersecurity-related updates.
● Apply for social media account verification
● Report impersonation using the platform’s dedicated support section, such as https://m.facebook.com/help/android-app/174210519303259
● Monitor your brand’s online presence: Data gathering and extensive data analysis allow you to level up your brand protection strategies from reactive to proactive. Dark web monitoring in case imposters tries to sell customers’ information on the dark web.
Lastly, brand intelligence and protection are done not only to protect the loss of revenue from a company but also to protect the company’s image, reputation, and overall value. Here is the link to a report/project I did on brand intelligence for an organization: https://lnkd.in/dzepGjPj I conduct brand intelligence and recommend solutions to brand impersonation and abuse, I’m readily available when you make up your mind to check your brand”s digital presence.
