By Kotie Geldenhuys
Images courtesy of Unsplash
In the contemporary era of digital advancements, safeguarding a brand has assumed heightened significance, primarily driven by the escalating phenomenon termed brandjacking, alternatively recognised as brand hijacking, brand abuse, brand theft or brand impersonation. Regardless of the terminology used, the strategies employed by malicious actors to exploit the trust of a company’s clientèle in a particular brand are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Brandjacking involves the unauthorised use of a well-known brand’s name, logo or intellectual property for malicious purposes, such as harvesting user credentials and spreading malware in a deceptive manner (Resnick, 2023). This criminal tactic aims to deceive users by posing as a familiar and trustworthy entity, with the ultimate goal of defrauding individuals or launching more sophisticated attacks on an organisation’s infrastructure (Katz, 2023).
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[This is only an extract of an article that is published in Servamus: April 2024. This article is available for purchase.]