What is online brand abuse?
Traditionally with physical goods, brand protection involved tackling the counterfeiting and abuse of intellectual property by parties operating externally to your business. But attackers increasingly (and efficiently) now use a combination of digital methods of brand abuse including:
- Fake or ‘Lookalike’ Websites
- Online Logo/Asset Misuse
- Business Email Compromise
- Email Impersonation
- Scam Campaigns and Phishing Attacks
- Fake Social Media Accounts
- Malicious Mobile Apps
Online brand protection strategies to combat these methods include logo and asset detection and management, domain lookalike takedown, DMARC, and BIMI, in conjunction with cyber-security software to detect phishing attacks and warn the end-user.
What is DMARC?
DMARC stands for ‘Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance’ and is an email-authentication protocol designed to protect your domain against impersonation. Having NO DMARC configuration on your domain(s) leaves your organisation particularly vulnerable to email impersonation and domain-based phishing attacks.
Your DMARC status is publicly available information:
>>> check the DMARC, SPF and DKIM settings for your all company domains here
When properly configured in a policy of REJECT, DMARC uses existing protocols SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) to ensure that emails sent using your domain are legitimate, preventing hackers from impersonating your brand and damaging your reputation.
DMARC can also improve deliverability rates for marketing/bulk emails by indicating they have come from a reputable source, as the protocol creates a record with metadata about the validation status of each email it receives from each organisation.
