Brand Monitoring

What is Brand Monitoring?

In the context of cybersecurity, brand monitoring means continuously track your company’s name, reputation, and related sensitive information across the internet to prevent misuse and protect your brand.

This includes monitoring for unauthorized use, such as fake websites, social media profiles, or email scams that pretend to be from your company.

The goal is simple: detect and respond to threats before they damage your brand’s reputation or lead to financial losses.

Why is Brand Monitoring Important?

Your brand is one of your most valuable assets.

But it’s also one of the most vulnerable.

Cybercriminals exploit brands to scam customers, spread misinformation, or steal sensitive information.

Monitoring your brand’s online presence is critical in protecting its assets and ensuring your organization’s reputation.

How Does Brand Monitoring Work?

Here’s a simplified breakdown of how brand monitoring solutions typically work:

1. Define Monitoring Scope

• Identify what needs monitoring: your brand name, domain names, IP addresses, and proprietary data.
• Select where to monitor: social media, blogs, forums, news sites, dark web, and Certificate Transparency logs.

2. Set Up Monitoring Tools

• Automated Tools: Use automated tools to continuously scan the internet for mentions of your brand.
• Custom Alerts: Configure alerts for specific keywords or variations of your brand name to catch typosquatting and homoglyph attacks.

3. Data Collection

• Real-Time Tracking: Track mentions across different platforms in real time, from social media to the dark web.
• Data Aggregation: Gather all this data in one central place for easy analysis and reporting.

4. Analyze Data

• Keyword Matching: Match keywords to spot relevant brand mentions.
• Sentiment Analysis: Check the tone—negative mentions could signal a threat.
• Contextual Analysis: Understand the context to distinguish between a harmless mention and a potential threat.

5. Identify Threats

• Phishing Scams: Detect phishing attacks, scams, and fraud using your brand name or similar domain names.
• Domain Spoofing: Monitor for newly registered domains that mimic the brand’s domain name (typosquatting) and could be used for malicious purposes.
• Data Leaks: Identify leaked credentials, sensitive information, and other data breaches related to your brand on the dark web.

6. Respond to Threats

• Incident Response: [Investigate the threat](Investigate the threat, take down malicious content, and notify affected users.), take down malicious content, and notify affected users.
• Legal Actions: If necessary, pursue legal steps against those exploiting your brand.
• Communication: Keep your customers and partners informed about the steps you’re taking to address the threat.

Examples of Brand Attacks

Brand monitoring can help catch attacks early. Here are a few real-world examples:

1. Twitter: In 2020, hackers exploited Twitter as part of an impersonation attack where they compromised the accounts of several well known people (and companies), including Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Apple. The attackers used social media posts to promote a cryptocurrency scam, asking followers to send Bitcoin with the promise of doubling their money. This attack not only caused real financial losses but also damaged the trust people had in Twitter/X.
2. Google: In 2017, a Google Docs worm infected over a million users by impersonating Google Docs. It sent an email to victims claiming to be a relative or friend who wanted to share a document. Clicking on the “Open in Docs” button prompted the user to log into Google using the familiar OAuth request asking for permissions. When the victim clicked “Allow”, full permission was granted over their entire email and contacts list. The worm then emailed everyone in their contacts list to continue propagating.
3. Activision: In 2022, Activision suffered a data breach after malicious users gained access to their internal systems by tricking an employee with an SMS phishing text. A company spokesperson said that no employee details, player data, or game data were breached in the attack. However, reports from Insider-Gaming and vx-underground show that the attackers gained access to full names, email addresses, phone numbers, salary information, work locations, and other employee details.

How To Prevent Attacks On Your Brand

Proactive brand monitoring can stop threats before they cause real damage. Here’s how prevent attacks:

1. Monitor Online Mentions: Go beyond Google Alerts. Use brand monitoring tools to track mentions of your brand on social media, forums, and blogs.
2. Track Domain Registrations: Tools like CertStream help monitor for new domain registrations. Filter the output to identify typosquatting domains similar your brand’s domain name.
3. Monitor the Dark Web: Use dark web monitoring solutions to locate leaked company data, employee credentials, session tokens, planned attacks, and any mentions of your brand.
4. Run Phishing Simulations: Educate your employees by running phishing simulations so they know how to spot and avoid phishing attacks
5. Add Legal Protection: Trademark your brand and logos to legally protect against misuse.
6. Collaborate with External Partners: Work with internet service providers and domain registrars to take down malicious domains.