Case Studies
Businesses just like yours are being attacked online at alarming rates with serious consequences. Disgruntled employees, fraudsters, crooked competitors and even human error are often to blame. The consequences can be far reaching: loss of sales, damage to your reputation, loss of confidence in your products, and much more.
But did you know that, contrary to popular belief, that there are many available ways to protect your business from such threats? The shutdown of sites hosting identity theft schemes, the reclamation of domain names from trademark infringers and even the removal of defamatory content from social media sites are all possible.
Read more on the four action strategies for social media threat elimination here.
When evidence of infringement is captured and available for evidence and when established protocols for remediation are understood, legitimate brand owners are more than likely to be able to put a stop to illicit activity by third parties, even before having to resort to any costly litigation.
Below are examples of Internet threats to unsuspecting businesses:
An individual approached the head office of a small regional US bank in search of employment in Information Security, claiming that he had discovered severe information security breaches on behalf of the bank. When his request for employment was denied, he embarked on a broad-reaching social media campaign to expose the bank for unethical business practices and improper disposal of client and corporate information.
The result: Threatened the bank’s reputation, as well as exposing them to potential legal repercussions by those clients whose information was being compromised.
The action: By following established content removal protocols, videos were removed from YouTube and content was removed from blogs which featured sensitive information.
A stainless steel bottle company was interested in expanding their range of water bottles. Imagine their surprise when they found a website selling their product. The fraudsters had stolen the images and copied the design on another site.
The result: Loss of revenue and a dilution of their brand.
The action: Website removed by contacting the ISP and informing them of this fraudulent website.
Fraudsters stole the company logo of a small but prominent kitchen renovation company and used it to create links to unrelated sites.
The result: More than 100 “illegal” URLs were registered by the fraudsters.
The action: Logos and links were removed by contacting the administrator of the sites.
A technology company’s website was spoofed online and a competitor was using their images and logos to attract investors.
The result: Serious ramifications for their credibility and a damaged reputation.
The action: Site removed by contacting the Internet Service Provider (ISP) hosting the spoofed site.
Operation Aurora targeted small and unsuspecting businesses by emailing web links that looked legitimate. Unfortunately the link led to a Taiwanese website that delivered a virus which provided the fraudsters with full access to the business’ entire internal systems.
The result: All company confidential information was compromised.
The action: Offending websites were removed by contacting the ISP