Brand Monitoring
Brand Protection Threat Intelligence Phishing
Brand monitoring is the practice of tracking your company’s name and digital assets across the internet to detect …
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Brand protection in cybersecurity is the practice of defending your brand from being weaponized against your customers and employees. It encompasses detecting phishing sites, lookalike domains, and fake social media accounts used to conduct attacks.
Your brand is a trust signal. Customers expect that a website with your logo is legitimate. Employees trust emails that appear to come from company addresses. Attackers exploit this trust by impersonating your brand to steal credentials and money.
Brand protection stops these attacks. By monitoring for impersonation and taking down malicious content, you protect the people who trust your brand.
How Do Attackers Abuse Brands?
Attackers exploit brand recognition in several ways.
Phishing sites. Attackers create convincing replicas of your login pages. They host these on lookalike domains and distribute links through email or social media. Victims who enter credentials think they’re logging into your legitimate site.
Lookalike domains. Domain spoofing involves registering domains that resemble yours. “yourcompany.co” instead of “yourcompany.com”. “your-company.net”. “yourcompanylogin.com”. These domains host phishing pages or send fraudulent emails.
Email spoofing. Attackers forge the sender address on emails to make them appear to come from your domain. Without proper email authentication, these spoofed emails reach your customers and employees.
Fake social media. Fraudulent accounts impersonate your company or executives. They run scams and direct followers to phishing sites.
Counterfeit products. For physical goods, brand protection extends to detecting counterfeit products that damage reputation and potentially harm customers.
Why Does Brand Protection Matter?
Brand abuse creates cascading problems beyond direct victims.
Customer trust erodes. When customers get phished through fake versions of your site, they blame you. Even though you weren’t breached, they experienced fraud associated with your brand.
Credential exposure multiplies. Credentials stolen through brand impersonation attacks end up in dark web marketplaces. Attackers use them for account takeover on your real platform.
Regulatory exposure. Depending on your industry, failure to protect customers from brand-based attacks may have regulatory implications.
Reputation damage. Successful impersonation attacks generate news coverage and social media discussion. The reputational damage persists even after takedowns.
What Are the Components of Brand Protection?
Effective protection requires monitoring and response.
Brand monitoring. Continuous surveillance for brand abuse across multiple channels. This includes newly registered domains, phishing site databases, social media platforms, and dark web forums.
Domain monitoring. Specific focus on domain registrations that could be used for impersonation. Certificate Transparency logs reveal SSL certificates issued to lookalike domains.
Takedown services. When malicious content is identified, it needs to be removed. This involves contacting hosting providers, domain registrars, and platform abuse teams to remove phishing sites and fake accounts.
Email authentication. Technical controls that make email spoofing harder. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC tell receiving mail servers how to verify legitimate email from your domain.
Defensive domain registration. Proactively registering common misspellings and variations of your domain prevents attackers from using them.
How Do You Detect Brand Abuse?
Detection requires monitoring multiple attack surfaces.
Domain registration monitoring. Watch for newly registered domains containing your brand name or variations. Tools can alert you when suspicious domains appear.
Certificate Transparency. CT logs record all SSL certificates issued. Monitoring these logs reveals when certificates are issued for domains impersonating your brand.
Phishing feed monitoring. Anti-phishing organizations maintain databases of known phishing sites. Your brand should be included in monitoring queries.
Social media surveillance. Monitor social platforms for accounts impersonating your company or executives. Both automated tools and manual searches are useful.
Dark web monitoring. Dark web monitoring reveals when credentials stolen through brand impersonation appear on criminal marketplaces. It also catches discussions about planned impersonation campaigns.
Customer reports. Customers may report suspicious emails or sites they encounter. Provide clear channels for these reports and investigate quickly.
How Do You Respond to Brand Abuse?
Response involves taking down malicious content and limiting damage.
Hosting provider takedowns. Contact the hosting provider for malicious sites. Provide evidence of impersonation and request removal. Most providers have abuse policies that prohibit phishing.
Domain registrar complaints. Report abusive domain registrations to registrars. ICANN policies require registrars to investigate abuse complaints.
Platform reports. Report fake social media accounts through platform abuse mechanisms. Verified brand accounts often get priority review.
Legal action. For persistent or egregious cases, legal options include cease-and-desist letters, UDRP complaints for domain disputes, and litigation.
Customer notification. Alert customers to active impersonation campaigns. Clear communication helps them avoid falling victim.
What Preventive Measures Help?
Prevention reduces the frequency and impact of brand abuse.
Email authentication. Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC with enforcement policies. This prevents attackers from spoofing your domain in emails.
Defensive domains. Register common typosquatting variations of your primary domain. Redirect them to your legitimate site.
Trademark registration. Registered trademarks strengthen takedown requests and legal options.
Customer education. Help customers identify legitimate communications. Publish your official domains and accounts. Explain how to verify emails and warn about common impersonation tactics.
Credential monitoring. When brand impersonation succeeds, stolen credentials appear on dark web markets. Credential monitoring detects these exposures, enabling password resets before attackers exploit them.
Real-World Brand Abuse Examples
These incidents illustrate how attackers weaponize brands.
Facebook and Google BEC (2013-2015). Attackers impersonated a hardware vendor doing business with both companies. Using spoofed invoices and domains, they stole over $100 million through wire transfer fraud.
Fake Elon Musk Twitter accounts. Scammers created accounts impersonating Elon Musk to promote cryptocurrency scams. They hijacked verified accounts and created new fakes, tricking users into sending Bitcoin to fraudulent addresses.
Brand phishing at scale. Major brands consistently top phishing target lists. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and financial institutions see thousands of impersonation attempts monthly.
Conclusion
Brand protection defends your reputation and your customers from attackers who exploit brand trust. By monitoring for impersonation, taking down malicious content, and implementing preventive controls, you reduce the risk of brand-based attacks.
Effective protection combines brand monitoring and email authentication. When attacks succeed despite prevention, credential monitoring catches stolen passwords before attackers use them.
Check if your credentials are already exposed with a free dark web scan.
Brand Protection FAQ
Brand protection defends your brand from being weaponized against your customers and employees. It involves monitoring for phishing sites, fake social media accounts, and lookalike domains. The goal is detecting impersonation and removing malicious content before attackers cause damage.
Monitor for lookalike domain registrations using domain monitoring. Implement email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to prevent spoofing. File takedown requests when phishing sites appear. Alert customers about active phishing campaigns targeting your brand.
Brand monitoring is continuous surveillance for brand abuse. Brand protection is the broader discipline that includes monitoring, takedowns, and prevention. Monitoring detects threats. Protection encompasses the full response including removing malicious content.
Attackers create phishing sites mimicking your login pages, register lookalike domains, and set up fake social media profiles. They use your brand’s trust to steal credentials from customers and employees. Your brand becomes the bait in their attacks.
When attackers impersonate your brand, your customers get phished. Stolen credentials end up on dark web markets and get used for account takeover. Customers blame you even though you weren’t breached. Credential monitoring catches stolen passwords when brand attacks succeed.