Brand Protection in cybersecurity is a crucial use case focused on the strategies, tools, and actions an organization uses to safeguard its brand identity, intellectual property, and reputation against misuse or attack by malicious actors on external digital channels. It is a component of Digital Risk Protection (DRP).

The goal is to stop unauthorized use of brand assets (names, logos, domains, and content) to prevent financial loss, damage to customer trust, and reputational decay. This includes defending against a broad spectrum of illicit activities outside the corporate network, such as:

  • Domain Abuse: Cybersquatting, typosquatting, and domain hijacking used for phishing or fraudulent sales.

  • Impersonation: Fake social media accounts, malicious mobile apps, and executive/employee impersonation for scams or fraud.

  • Intellectual Property (IP) Theft: Unauthorized use of trademarks, copyrights, and the sale of counterfeit products online.

  • Reputational Damage: Spread of defamatory content, negative reviews, or data leaks that erode consumer trust.

How ThreatNG Helps with Brand Protection

ThreatNG is an all-in-one solution that includes Digital Risk Protection capabilities, making it highly effective for Brand Protection. It provides the outside-in visibility and intelligence needed to find, validate, and prioritize external threats to the brand.

External Discovery

ThreatNG performs purely external unauthenticated discovery using no connectors. For Brand Protection, this capability is essential for discovering the full digital presence that an attacker can target, which extends beyond an organization's owned websites.

  • Example: It automatically maps all internet-facing assets, including those that may have been forgotten or are part of "shadow IT". This discovery process, for instance, would identify an old, forgotten promotional subdomain that an attacker could potentially exploit or use to host a phishing site, thereby damaging the brand's reputation.

External Assessment

ThreatNG's comprehensive assessments directly rate the brand's exposure to external threats:

  • Brand Damage Susceptibility: This score is derived from digital risk intelligence and factors such as ESG Violations, Sentiment and Financials (Lawsuits, SEC filings, Negative News), and Domain Intelligence.

    • Example: A Negative News finding in the Sentiment and Financials module would raise the Brand Damage Susceptibility score, indicating that the brand is currently a more attractive and vulnerable target for reputation-based attacks, like a coordinated smear campaign on social media.

  • BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: This is derived in part from Domain Intelligence, specifically Domain Name Permutations (which are available and taken) and Email Intelligence (email security presence like DMARC, SPF, and DKIM).

    • Example: The assessment identifies a taken domain permutation using a homoglyph (a character that looks like another) or a TLD-swap (e.g., yourbrand.co instead of yourbrand.com). This flags a high-priority phishing threat that is actively exploiting the brand name.

  • Mobile App Exposure: This assessment evaluates an organization’s mobile apps in marketplaces.

    • Example: It discovers a fake app using the brand's name in a marketplace like Google Play or the Apple App Store, and then scans its contents for exposed data like Access Credentials (e.g., a Stripe API Key) or Security Credentials (e.g., an RSA Private Key).

Reporting

ThreatNG offers reports to communicate brand-related risks to various stakeholders quickly:

  • Prioritized Report: This report clearly highlights and ranks a newly discovered, highly malicious brand infringement (like an active phishing site or a high-traffic fake social media account) as High risk, allowing security teams to focus resources on the most immediate threats to the brand.

  • Ransomware Susceptibility Report: This includes context on Dark Web Presence regarding ransomware activity, which can indicate if ransomware gangs are using the brand's name or logo in their communication with victims.

Continuous Monitoring

ThreatNG performs continuous monitoring of the external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings of all organizations. For Brand Protection, this ensures that fleeting, temporary threats—such as a short-lived phishing campaign or a new, quickly registered typosquatted domain—are captured and acted upon immediately, rather than being missed by periodic scans.

Investigation Modules

The Investigation Modules provide the granular evidence needed to validate and initiate enforcement actions against brand abuse.

  • Domain Intelligence: This module is critical for finding and analyzing domain-based abuse.

    • Example: Using Domain Name Permutations, it finds a new domain that uses a Targeted Key Word like login or support (e.g., https://www.google.com/search?q=yourbrand-login.com). DNS Intelligence then provides the associated IP Identification and Mail Record, providing the necessary technical evidence to initiate a domain takedown request.

  • Social Media: This module proactively manages "Narrative Risk" by turning public chatter into protective intelligence.

    • Example: Reddit Discovery functions as a Digital Risk Protection system that finds an escalating thread discussing a "security flaw" or a coordinated plan to create fake social media accounts to spread a hoax about the brand. This allows the brand to address the narrative before it escalates into a public crisis.

  • Sensitive Code Exposure: This module discovers public code repositories.

    • Example: It finds a public GitHub repository that contains a Configuration File (e.g., a Docker configuration file) or Access Credentials (e.g., an AWS Access Key ID). While this is a direct security risk, it is also a brand risk, as the public exposure of sensitive data directly damages the brand's reputation for security and compliance.

Intelligence Repositories (DarCache)

The Intelligence Repositories provide the continuous, real-time data needed to assess brand threats contextually.

  • Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture): This is essential for detecting potential internal impersonation risks, like Business Email Compromise (BEC), where a threat actor impersonates an employee using stolen credentials.

  • ESG Violations (DarCache ESG): Discovered ESG violations inform the Brand Damage Susceptibility score by providing context on publicly exposed ethical or regulatory issues that malicious actors might use as a hook to create believable, targeted brand attacks.

Working with Complementary Solutions

ThreatNG's comprehensive and prioritized threat intelligence can be used with complementary security solutions to automate response and enforcement for Brand Protection.

  • Takedown and Enforcement Services: ThreatNG utilizes its Domain Intelligence to identify newly registered, malicious domains that clearly impersonate brands (e.g., https://www.google.com/search?q=brandsupport-login.com). The complete findings, including the domain permutation type, the associated IP address, and the mail record, are automatically exported via the Reporting module to a complementary Takedown and Enforcement Service. This cooperation enables the enforcement solution to bypass time-consuming manual validation and submit a validated request to the domain registrar for a cease-and-desist or takedown, thereby significantly reducing the time the fraudulent site remains active.

  • Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Platforms: ThreatNG’s Continuous Monitoring detects a high-severity alert from Social Media monitoring—a new, highly active, and malicious fake social media profile impersonating a C-level executive. The Prioritized Report sends this alert to the organization's complementary SOAR platform. The SOAR platform's automated playbook triggers immediate actions, such as notifying the legal and communications teams of the executive, automatically generating a public statement draft, and opening a case file with all the collected Correlation Evidence from ThreatNG, ensuring a swift and coordinated crisis response to protect the brand's reputation.