Threats, malware, and attack techniques
Brand abuse
Brand abuse is any unauthorised use of a company's name, marks, logo, content or reputation online, from phishing sites and fake social accounts to counterfeit listings and misleading adverts.
The channels
Brand abuse is defined by what is borrowed, not where. The same brand can be misused across all of these at once.
- Domains and websites: lookalike hostnames, cloned pages, phishing kits.
- Email and messaging: spoofed senders, lookalike sender domains, smishing.
- Social media: fake accounts, fake support, fake giveaways.
- Paid search and adverts: brand-name bidding that leads to scam or competitor pages.
- App stores: copycat and malicious apps.
- Marketplaces: counterfeits and scam storefronts.
Why it is handled as one problem
Attackers reuse infrastructure across channels: the domain in the smishing text is the same one behind the fake advert, and the fake social account links to it. Treating each channel separately means filing three reports about one operation and never connecting them. A single case that records the shared hostname, registrant and hosting closes faster and produces evidence that stands up when a provider or a court asks what happened.
What a programme looks like
Detection across the channels that matter for the brand, a severity model that puts customer harm first, evidence collection that is routine rather than heroic, reporting through the right provider channels, and measurement of how long each step takes. The last part is what separates a programme from a series of one-off reactions.
Related terms
Sources
External guidance is general. Adapt it to your legal, regulatory and operational requirements.