How to Keep Your Brand Safe from Brandjacking

Protect Your Business from Brandjacking: Safeguard Your Online Identity

Imagine that your business's online identity has been hijacked by cyber threat actors. They now have control over your website, social media platforms, and other public communication channels. This is called brandjacking, and it is the act of assuming a brand's online identity with the intention of ruining the company's reputation. 

What happened in the Binance Brandjacking attack?

In February 2023, a group of cyber criminals hijacked the Twitter account of the popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The attackers used the account to send out a series of tweets that falsely claimed that Binance was giving away free Bitcoin. The tweets included a link that, when clicked, would take users to a fake Binance website that was designed to steal their cryptocurrency. 

The brandjacking attack was successful in misleading several users, who clicked on the link and entered their cryptocurrency credentials. The attackers were able to steal a total of $2.4 million worth of cryptocurrency. This attack on Binance is a reminder of the growing threat of cybercrime in the cryptocurrency industry. As more and more people invest in cryptocurrency, criminals are becoming more interested in targeting these assets. Binance has since published steps on how to protect yourself from similar scam attacks. 

(Read more https://www.binance.com/en/blog/community/know-your-scam-protect-yourself-from-binance-imposter-scams-8186206274508844717) 

How do I protect my business from brandjacking or impersonation?

Brand Hijacking poses a serious threat to businesses, with potentially devastating consequences.

When cyber criminals take control of your online presence or attempt to mimic your brand identity, customers may unknowingly interact with these malicious entities, leading to financial losses, reputational damage, and even legal repercussions. Protecting your brand from brandjacking is vital to maintain trust and credibility with your audience. Whilst in some cases there is nothing that can be done to stop malicious threat actors from impersonating your brand, there are many ways in which you can reduce risk; 

1. Invest in Your Website

Your website serves as the digital face of your business, making it a prime target for brandjacking. You should prioritise domain security to safeguard your website's credibility and protect your customers. Here are some tips that can help: 

Grant access to your website content management system only to trusted sources and from trusted locations, preventing unauthorised changes, and minimising the risk of potential domain hijacking attempts. 
Retain access to the domain management panel, even if a third party registers the domain on your behalf, ensuring you can take control swiftly in case of a security breach or suspicious activities. 
Invest in an SSL certificate for websites handling customer data, encrypting sensitive information, and thwarting hackers' attempts to intercept it, providing your customers with peace of mind. 
Protect your website with services such as Cloudflare, a content delivery network (CDN) which offers security features such as DDoS protection, web application firewall, and rate limiting, which can protect your website from various online threats.  
Additionally, Cloudflare can offer SSL/TLS encryption to ensure data privacy and integrity between your website and its visitors. 

2. Monitor Your Social Media Channels

Social media is a powerful communication tool for brands, making it essential to maintain active accounts on major platforms. Social listening helps you stay vigilant against brandjacking threats and enhance your brand's reputation. Here's how: 

Regularly monitor mentions of your brand on social media platforms manually, social listening tools or web/app push notifications, staying informed about what customers are saying about your business. 
Respond promptly to any negative or inaccurate information about your brand, addressing concerns transparently and demonstrating your commitment to customer satisfaction. 
Monitor for impersonation accounts and report them using each social platform reporting portal. 
Proactively engage with your audience, fostering a strong relationship built on trust and authenticity, which can act as a powerful defence against potential brandjacking attempts. 

Brandjacking for Phishing Attacks 

Brand Highjacking is also extremely common in Phishing attacks. Have you ever received an email from "Amazon" saying that your "invoice is due", "payment details are incorrect" or "Prime Subscription will be Cancelled unless you update your card details". Unfortunately, these are all common methods by which malicious threat actors attempt to impersonate major brands to take advantage of people around the world. By using the logos, fonts & colour schemes of major brands they are prying on people and business users who do not know the common phishing signs to look out for or have adequate Email Threat Protection in place to safeguard their business from these cyber threats.  

Other methods malicious threat actors use to attempt to trick people is by making the "Display Name" of an email address appear to look like it has come from the brand, using words such as "Amazing Support" or "Customer Service" with the email behind this for a completely different service, or with the domain name (the part of the email address after the @) designed to look like the brand by using similar words within a larger domain such as: amazn.custservice.xyz  

Advanced Email Threat Protection is designed to protect businesses from threats such as these, it uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to check for common forms of Brand Highjacking phishing attacks such as; 

Does the Display Name Depict a Different Brand to the Domain Name? 
Does the Domain Name have SPF & DKIM? 
Does the wording of the text in the email appear to be deceptively impersonating a Brand? 
Do links in the email go to websites that could be used to capture your information? 
Are there deceptive attachments in the email that could contain malware or embedded links to sign in to similar websites? 

And much more besides! 

How do I keep my brand safe from Brandjacking?

Invest in a comprehensive and strong Cyber Security solution to protect your business from potential attacks. Cyber Security is a crucial defence against brandjacking and other online threats in today's ever-evolving cyber threat landscape. At TwentyFour we offer tailored cyber security solutions to safeguard your business such as these, such as; 

Ensure your business is protected against brand identity and other phishing attacks such as impersonation and social engineering attacks, with Advanced Email Threat Protection. 
Conduct regular cyber security vulnerability assessments to identify and remediate security weaknesses in your systems, pre-emptively closing the door to potential cyber attacks. 
Provide comprehensive security awareness training to empower your employees with the knowledge to defend against cyber attacks, creating a vigilant and cyber-resilient workforce. 
Conduct regular simulated phishing attacks to identify any users who need further training to spot these types of attacks. 
Ensure that you have an incident response plan in place to minimise damage in the event of a cyber attack, ensuring a swift and effective response to any attempted brandjacking incidents. 

To find out more about our Email Security services, Click Here.

Protect Your Brand, Protect Your Business 

How can TwentyFour IT help me protect my business or brand?

Defending your brand from brandjacking is not just an option; it's a necessity. Implement these proactive measures to safeguard your online identity and preserve your business's reputation. Reach out to TwentyFour IT today to fortify your cybersecurity defences and protect what matters most.

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