Brand Monitoring & Protection
Gain control of your brand assets online.
Protect from brand violations
Our Brand Monitoring and Protection service is here to detect brand attacks early, before significant damage is done to your online reputation.
Effective brand protection involves much more than identifying brand mentions online.
Using:
- Machine learning
- And human expertise
Our security teams capture data from a variety of sources (prioritising your brand-related channels) and analyse the findings for brand abuse and violations.
Do you want more confidence in the safety of your online identity?
Discover why online brand protection should be an integral part of your risk management strategy.
According to statistics, 91% of consumers only buy from brands they trust.
Without a strong online reputation, would your customers find another brand to place their business?
Ready to achieve your security goals? We’re at your service.
Whether you are a CISO, an IT Director or a business owner, Equilibrium has the expertise to help you shape and deliver your security strategy.
Why is brand protection important?
Attackers impersonate brands in order to access a secure network, steal data or initiate a fraudulent money transfer.
Consumers place significant trust in the online brands they interact with, which makes it simple for attackers to mimic a company’s website and trick users into disclosing confidential information.
Customers who are frequently bombarded with promotional emails and targeted display ads, may find it difficult to discern the subtle disparities between a genuine and a fake domain or website.
- Your brand is your biggest & most valuable asset.
- A brand attack can damage your reputation & erode customer trust, leading to long-term brand harm.
- Reduce the risk of financial loss, & legal liability.
- Damaging your brand image can decrease competitive advantage in the marketplace.
We monitor & detect:
Domain spoofing
We monitor to ensure no fake or spoofed domains exist, or are being used nefariously. New domain’s could suggest a brand impersonation attack or phishing attack.
Logo use
Gain insight into your online brand placement. Our team of security experts search the internet to find where and how your logo is being used.
Social media
We monitor social media platforms to detect fake social media profiles, phishing/ impersonation attacks & the unauthorised use of brand assets.
Website defacement
Monitor for unauthorised website hacks such as inserting malicious code, posting offensive, provocative or harmful content, or even data deletion.
The deep and dark web
Dark web visibility helps detect mentions of your brand, unauthorised utilisation of your intellectual property, & any attempts at fraud that could harm your company.
Immediate Alerts
We are committed to your security. The moment we detect any critical issues or threats, we promptly send you an alert via email.
Why choose Equilibrium to protect your brand?
- We're trusted to protect blue chip, public sector & SME brands for over a decade.
- Get peace of mind that your supported by a team of industry experts.
- Feel more confident, empowered, & in control of your brand security.
Online brand monitoring process
The first step is to define the scope of the Brand Monitoring & Protection service, which includes identifying the channels to be monitored (such as social media platforms, forums, or other websites), the types of threats to be monitored (such as impersonation, phishing, or reputation attacks), and the frequency of monitoring.
The next step is to collect data from the identified channels using various monitoring tools and techniques, such as web crawlers, social media APIs, or search engines. This data can include mentions of your brand, keywords related to your industry or products, and potential indicators of compromise.
Once the data is collected, it needs to be analysed to identify potential threats and risks to your brand. This involves using various analytical techniques, such as sentiment analysis, natural language processing, & machine learning algorithms, to identify patterns and anomalies in the data that may indicate a threat.
If a potential brand threat is identified, our Cyber Security experts will investigate it further to determine its severity and impact. This may involve gathering additional data, analysing the threat’s origin and motivation, & assessing the risk of the threat.
If a threat is confirmed, we will develop a mitigation strategy to address it. This may involve reporting fake social media accounts, reporting phishing sites to authorities, or contacting website owners to remove harmful content.
We continuously monitor your brand and reputation for potential threats and adjust the monitoring and protection strategies as necessary. This ensures that our service remains effective and up-to-date.
What's the benefits?
Improved customer trust
Improve customer confidence in your brand. This can lead to increased loyalty & a stronger competitive position in the market.
Early brand attack detection
Identify attacks such as phishing, domain squatting, impersonation & trademark infringement before your customers fall victim.
Proactive risk management
Reduce your overall risk exposure, by taking early action to mitigate the impact of brand abuse before it causes harm.
Compliance & legal protection
Ensure compliance with relevant laws & regulations related to brand protection, such as trademark and copyright laws.
Why invest in online brand protection?
Using advanced technologies and human expertise, our Cyber Security Brand Monitoring Service can continuously search for unauthorised use of your brand’s intellectual property.
By investing in digital brand protection, you can rest easy at night knowing that your brand is proactively protected by certified IT security specialists.
This enables you to concentrate on other crucial responsibilities, free from concerns about the possible impact of a brand violation.
- Monitor for security brand exposures across multiple channels.
- Real-time alerts and reporting to enable swift action.
- Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) techniques to locate & analyse public data sources.
- Examine online media to identify where your logo is used.
Frequently Asked Questions
Brand protection services are needed in addition to traditional perimeter security measures because they address a different set of security risks and threats.
Traditional perimeter security measures, such as firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and antivirus software, are designed to protect your infrastructure from external threats by blocking unauthorised access and preventing malware from entering the network.
However, brand-related threats, such as brand impersonation, domain squatting, counterfeiting, and trademark infringement, occur outside of your network perimeter and can be more difficult to detect and mitigate.
By combining both traditional perimeter security measures and brand protection services, you can create a comprehensive security posture that addresses a wide range of security risks and threats, both inside and outside the network perimeter.
Many still consider ‘brand protection’ as a marketing rather than security function. But today, it’s essential to protect your brand across many business areas, particularly Cyber Security and risk management.
The aim for security teams, is to identify malicious and unwarranted use of your brand’s intellectual property. They need broad visibility across the public attack surface to identify and prevent brand impersonators.
Marketing teams focus on brand mentions on social media, as well as comments on review sites and public forums. Brand monitoring provides marketers an understanding of how they are seen online, enabling them to communicate directly with their target audience, address any criticism, and discover ways to enhance their online image.
Some of the common types of brand violations and attacks include:
- Domain infringement – where cyber-criminals register domain names that are similar to legitimate brands in order to trick customers into visiting fraudulent websites.
Social media impersonation – where cyber-criminals create fake social media profiles that mimic legitimate brands in order to scam customers or damage the brand’s reputation.
Counterfeiting – criminals create and distribute counterfeit goods that infringe on a brand’s trademark, causing reputational and financial damage.
Malware attacks – hackers use malware to compromise a brand’s website or other digital assets, steal sensitive information, or launch further attacks.
Brandjacking – where cybercriminals hijack a brand’s social media accounts or other online properties in order to spread false information or promote their own products.
Supply chain attacks – where cybercriminals target a brand’s suppliers or vendors in order to gain access to their systems and steal sensitive information.
Brand threats can have significant impacts on a company’s bottom line, reputation, and ability to conduct business.
It can also lead to:
Reputational damage – Brand violations and attacks can negatively impact a company’s reputation and erode customer trust.
Financial loss – Brand attacks can lead to financial loss through lost sales, legal fees, and damage control costs.
Legal liabilities – If a company fails to protect its brand from cyber security threats, it may face legal liabilities and regulatory fines.
Customer loss – Brand violations can lead to the loss of existing customers and make it harder to acquire new customers.
Business disruption – A brand attack can disrupt a company’s operations, leading to business downtime and lost productivity.
Intellectual property theft – Cyber criminals can steal a company’s intellectual property, such as trademarks and patents, which can impact the company’s competitive advantage.
Cyber Security managers are responsible for protecting an organisation’s digital assets, including its systems, networks, and data.
However, brand-related attacks often take place outside of an your security perimeter, making them difficult to detect and prevent using traditional Cyber Security measures.
Brand protection services can help to fill this gap by monitoring the internet for brand-related threats and providing early warning of potential attacks.