Is your brand being abused?

Do you really know how your brand is being used on the internet, or have you lost track?

Over the past 10 years, hundreds of new TLDs (domain suffixes) have been introduced, making it more time-consuming and costly for organizations to protect and control their brands online. It’s a jungle that can be difficult to navigate on your own as you try to put together a portfolio that ensures optimal protection and control. Unfortunately, the many new TLDs also benefit malicious cybercriminals.

Each time a third party registers a domain that contains your brand, you lose a bit of control. It is no longer up to you what your brand is being used for or associated with. We often see brands – both global and local – being used to generate traffic to pornographic websites and gambling sites or for phishing, online scams and various types of cyberattacks.

In 90% of all cyberattacks, criminals exploit domains or subdomains to send malicious emails into organizations, with various forms of malware (e.g., spyware or ransomware). This often occurs via domains that either match or are confusingly similar to a organization’s brand, so the email appears to forwarded by a legitimate trusted source, which means you are more likely to click on a link or open an attachment infected with malware.

It could potentially harm an organization’s credibility, if scammers use a domain that contains your brand to deceive your customers. For example, by sending fake invoices or fake bank details which customers are asked to use, when paying their invoices.

Furthermore, it could be extremely costly, if the fraudulent third party uses a domain that contains your brand to set up fake webshops, where counterfeit products or competing brands are sold.

Not having a proper overview can, thus, be a risky affair – but no need to worry. There is an easy solution.

Domain monitoring protects your brand from attacks by third parties.

There are various ways to protect your brand from unauthorized and malicious third parties. The safest approach, of course, is to secure your brand and relevant brand variants on all existing TLDs, but this solution is enormously cost-intensive and for most companies would mean too many defensive domain registrations in markets that are otherwise irrelevant, and thus have no value for your business.

We recommend that you only register domains containing your brands and brand variations in relevant markets, e.g. where you sell your products and services, so they actually add value – and instead add a monitoring solution that keeps an eye on the rest.

With a domain monitoring solution, you are notified as soon as a third party registers a domain containing your brand or a variation of your brand. This offers an opportunity to take action in due time before any damage is done to your brand.

IP Dots’ domain monitoring solutions offer a reliable and comprehensive service with a wide range of benefits:

• Advanced monitoring: Our solution offers advanced monitoring of domain registrations to identify potential threats and security risks on virtually all available TLDs.

• Early warning: By detecting potential threats early, our solution allows for preventing attacks or unauthorized use of your brand as well as domains.

• Tailored customization: We customize monitoring parameters to your specific needs and requirements, ensuring a tailored and effective solution.

• Comprehensive coverage: Our solution can be configured to search not only for identical matches but also for variations of your brand with misspellings, typos or substitution of characters, ensuring a more comprehensive protection of your brand.

• Reporting: Initially you will first receive a comprehensive report providing an exhaustive overview of all existing domain registrations containing your brand. Subsequently, you will receive ongoing reports with new findings, either daily, weekly, or monthly.

• Support: We offer professional and dedicated support, ensuring that you always have access to help or guidance regarding the solution itself and your rights and options. We provide support and advice in both English and Danish to meet your needs and ensure that you receive the best possible assistance in the language that suits you best.

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