Keep Your Business Reputation Safe Online
The United States recognized cybersecurity’s importance by naming October National Cybersecurity Awareness month. It reminds us of how important it is to safeguard ourselves and our businesses from the technological and data threats in the internet world. You want your business reputation to be safe online. This is one aspect of cybersecurity you should remember. However, just because October is over doesn’t mean we should forget about cybersecurity and keeping our businesses safe online.
Continue reading to learn more about keeping your business online safe.
Identifying and avoiding scams
Pay attention. Can you tell the contrast between Intentjet.com vs. Gocladdy.com? You may have noticed that the “d,” replaced by “cl,” is gone. However, they look very similar at first glance and in specific fonts.
Now let’s try a more complex
example: [email protected] and [email protected]. Do you see it? No? You don’t have to feel guilty. Even a trained eye can spot the difference.
The “i” in security for the first option does not have a dot. It is a letter of a different alphabet that looks similar to an “I,” even though it may look similar. These homographic tricks (modifications to domain names that are almost indistinguishable) are how intelligent people get phished.
It is nearly impossible for anyone to be sufficiently vigilant or wise to ensure they are safe online. No matter how clever you are / how cautious you may be, it doesn’t matter how paranoid you are.
How important it is to set your business reputation online safe
Customers cannot identify the hackers’ names and the faces of the spoofers when they get hacked. They don’t blame criminals if they lose money or are tricked.
Think about the image of your company. Think about the impact on customer acquisitions and growth. Are there any regulatory actions? Many government agencies impose severe civil penalties and fines for violating customer data protection standards, including the FTC in the United States and the European Data Protection Board (EU).
Your business could suffer reputational damage hundreds to thousands of times greater than any dollar loss from fraud.
Home Depot had to pay $17.5million in settlements after hackers infiltrated their system and gained customer payment information. Home Depot has spent $198 million on expenses to address the breach.
Protecting your domain name
Humans cannot be vigilant enough to prevent every cyberattack. There is, however, a technology solution to protect your domain. A domain with homographic blocking installed can help protect your brand from socially engineered Phishing.
Domain names can support international characters, not just the Latin alphabet we are familiar with. This means terrible actors could create homographs using characters similar to those in your domain. A homograph is simply a domain name that looks similar to another. There could be thousands, or even millions, of these variations, making it almost impossible to identify.
This is where homographic blocking comes into play. Homographic blocking is scanning your domain and identifying any homographs. This blocks malicious actors from registering domain names and using them against your account.
Editor’s Note: Antiphishing technology is included with every Identity Digital Domain. This ensures that you are protected from malicious homographs throughout the life of your domain. This protects your brand by preventing domain spoofing registrations.
Other ways you can protect your business
A cybersecurity defense strategy should include domain protection, but it is only one component. Although it is impossible to eliminate all risks, these areas can help you reduce your exposure.
Your browser can protect malicious websites. Google Chrome provides powerful protection, such as site isolation, sandboxing, predictive phishing protection, and more. Other cybersecurity tools, such as firewalls and ad blocking, should be considered.
Your team should use strong passwords. A password manager is the better way to ensure strong passwords. There are many beautiful options. Your team should implement two-factor authentication to prevent hackers from gaining unauthorized access to your accounts, even if your passwords have been compromised. Learn more about 2FA here.
Many cyber threats can be delivered via email. You and your employees must be vigilant. In 2021, 83% of businesses experienced successful email-based Phishing attacks.
These are a fewof the most common scams:
- Spoofing: To convince you it is from a trusted source, a scammer disguises your email address by changing one character.
- Phishing: A scammer will send you an email claiming to be from a business. It asks for personal information and requests that you update it via a fake website.
- Spear Phishing: A scammer sends an email to you with enough personal information, such as your name, title, and company, to convince you that you trust the source and give secure information.