Reputational damage in brand protection refers to the harm inflicted on a brand's image, customer trust, and overall standing due to various online threats. This damage can stem from diverse sources, including adverse publicity, data breaches, security incidents, and—critically—the proliferation of spoofed, fake, phishing, cloned, imitation, fraudulent, deceptive, and malicious websites that misuse the brand's identity. These websites can erode customer trust, misrepresent the brand, and even facilitate financial fraud or malware distribution, severely tarnishing the brand's reputation.

How ThreatNG Helps with Reputational Damage

ThreatNG offers a comprehensive suite of capabilities to mitigate reputational damage and safeguard brand integrity.

External Discovery and Assessment

ThreatNG's external discovery engine enables it to proactively identify and analyze potential threats without requiring access to internal systems or credentials. This is crucial for detecting various forms of brand impersonation and misuse, including spoofed websites, fraudulent social media profiles, and malicious mobile applications that leverage the brand's identity.

ThreatNG's external assessment capabilities provide valuable insights into an organization's vulnerability to reputational damage. This includes:

• Brand Damage Susceptibility: ThreatNG provides a comprehensive assessment of a brand's susceptibility to damage, considering various factors such as online reputation, social media presence, news sentiment, and potential legal issues. This helps organizations understand their overall risk profile and prioritize mitigation efforts.

• Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: ThreatNG analyzes web applications for vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to deface websites, redirect users to malicious sites, or spread misinformation, which can damage the brand's reputation. For example, it can detect if a web application is susceptible to cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, which could be used to inject malicious scripts that alter website content or redirect users to fake websites.

• Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: ThreatNG assesses the susceptibility of subdomains to takeover attacks, which could be used to host malicious content or redirect users to websites that damage the brand's reputation. For example, it can detect if a subdomain has an expired SSL certificate, which could allow an attacker to take over the subdomain and host a fake website or phishing page.

• BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: ThreatNG provides a rating that assesses an organization's susceptibility to phishing attacks, including spoofed websites or emails to damage the brand's reputation. This rating considers various factors, such as the organization's email security measures and presence on the dark web.

Reporting and Continuous Monitoring

ThreatNG generates detailed reports highlighting potential threats and vulnerabilities that could damage reputations. These reports can be customized to meet the needs of different stakeholders, including executives, security teams, and public relations officers.

ThreatNG also continuously monitors the external attack surface, allowing organizations to detect and respond to new threats in real time. This is crucial for identifying new spoofed websites, phishing campaigns, or social media attacks targeting the brand's reputation.

Investigation Modules and Intelligence Repositories

ThreatNG offers a variety of investigation modules that can be used to analyze potential threats in more detail. These modules include:

• Domain Intelligence: This module provides detailed information about a domain, including its DNS records, SSL certificates, and email security measures. It can be used to identify spoofed websites that use similar domain names or email addresses to impersonate the brand and potentially damage its reputation.

• Dark Web Presence: This module monitors the dark web for mentions of the organization, including compromised credentials, phishing campaigns, or adverse publicity that could damage the brand's reputation.

• Social Media: This module analyzes social media posts and activities related to the organization, helping to identify potential scams, misinformation, or negative campaigns that could harm the brand's reputation.

• Sentiment and Financials: This module analyzes news articles, social media posts, and financial reports to assess the overall sentiment toward the organization and identify potential reputational risks.

ThreatNG also maintains various intelligence repositories containing information about known threats and vulnerabilities. These repositories include:

• Dark web: This repository contains information about compromised credentials, phishing campaigns, and other threats being discussed on the dark web, including those that could damage a brand's reputation.

• Known vulnerabilities: This repository contains information about known vulnerabilities in software and hardware, including vulnerabilities that could be exploited to damage a brand's reputation.

• ESG violations: This repository contains information about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) violations, which could negatively impact a brand's reputation if exposed.

Working with Complementary Solutions

ThreatNG can integrate with various complementary solutions to provide a more comprehensive reputation management and protection approach. These solutions include:

• Public relations and crisis communication tools: ThreatNG can integrate with public relations and crisis communication tools to help organizations respond to negative publicity or misinformation that could damage their reputation. This allows organizations to quickly disseminate accurate information and mitigate the impact of adverse events.

• Social media monitoring and management tools: ThreatNG can integrate with social media monitoring and management tools to provide a more comprehensive view of the brand's online presence and identify potential reputational risks. This allows organizations to track social media conversations, respond to negative comments, and proactively manage their online reputation.

• Brand protection and anti-counterfeiting solutions: ThreatNG can integrate with brand protection and anti-counterfeiting solutions to help organizations identify and remove fake websites, products, and social media accounts damaging their reputations.

Examples of ThreatNG Helping

• ThreatNG identified a network of spoofed websites impersonating a customer's brand and spreading misinformation about their products. The customer was able to take down the spoofed websites and prevent further damage to their reputation.

• ThreatNG identified a vulnerability in a customer's website that could have been exploited to deface and damage their reputation. The customer was able to patch the vulnerability and prevent any potential attacks.

Examples of ThreatNG Working with Complementary Solutions

• ThreatNG integrated with a customer's public relations tool to help them respond to a negative news article about their company. This allowed the customer to quickly disseminate accurate information and mitigate the damage to their reputation.

• ThreatNG integrated with a customer's brand protection solution to help them identify and remove fake websites and social media accounts damaging their reputation.

By leveraging its comprehensive capabilities and integrating complementary solutions, ThreatNG provides a robust defense against reputational damage. This helps organizations protect their brand image, maintain customer trust, and ensure the long-term success of their business.