When a brand gains recognition, it becomes a target for cybercriminal exploitation. They can misuse the brand to peddle subpar products and services or target the brand’s clients, partners, and employees.
Often, even the brand’s information security department remains unaware of these malevolent brand clones until they trigger a surge of customer support emails or ignite a social media scandal, severely damaging the brand’s reputation. The most prevalent forms of these digital imposters are threefold.
1. Fake Apps in Online Stores
In today’s digital landscape, almost every business offers apps for seamless access to online services, sometimes multiple apps. A simple app store search yields multiple results. While most users choose the most popular and legitimate option, some may unwittingly fall victim to scammers, especially when directed to a fraudulent app via a direct link.
Such malicious apps can conceal anything from banking Trojans to remote access tools on the user’s mobile device. Recently, Kaspersky experts uncovered modified versions of well-known instant-messenger apps on Google Play harboring spyware.
2. Fake Social Media Accounts
Criminals frequently employ social media accounts impersonating brands for various illicit purposes. They disseminate false information to promote semi-legal activities like online casinos or outright scams, such as fake giveaways offering prizes, tickets, or bitcoins purportedly linked to the brand. These fake accounts can also share malicious or phishing links or serve as platforms for sophisticated social engineering attacks.
3. Phishing Sites
If a company’s website contains a member area for clients, partners, or employees, their login credentials become valuable targets for attackers. Sooner or later, these attackers will attempt to replicate such a website to harvest logins and passwords, either for reselling to other cybercriminals or direct exploitation.
Protecting a Company’s Reputation from Imitators:
While these illegal schemes primarily target individuals or business users, it’s the brand’s reputation that suffers the most. Therefore, it is imperative to identify and eliminate these brand impersonators before they inflict significant harm.
Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence empowers customers to monitor their digital footprint, identifying potential risks and vulnerabilities. It now extends its functionality to monitor phishing sites utilizing brand names registered with typosquatting or combosquatting and offers a domain takedown service.
Furthermore, this service enables tracking, identification, and removal of social network and app accounts that illegitimately employ a company’s name.
