Creating a fake account on social media is easy. For the most part, social networks have few built-in mechanisms for readily authenticating accounts as they are created, and users can claim to be anyone or anything they want without consequences. And cybercriminals’ favorite thing to pretend to be online? Your brand.
Recent research on this topic found that the number of malicious impersonations, as opposed to fan accounts, has increased a whopping 11 times since 2014. Considering social media’s scale and brands’ increasing investment in growth and advertising on these platforms, the landscape is ripe for cybercriminals to exploit these organizations. They attack customers, damage reputation and rob brand value before the cyber “police” even know what’s going on.
With low barriers to entry, the networks’ attempts to police this situation has been to add the coveted blue authenticated checkmark to certain big accounts. However, this doesn’t stop attackers from Photoshopping the checkmark into their background image or creating a support representative or franchise page. As such, the social networks also rely heavily on the brands themselves to identify and report any violations of their terms of service.
If I was an attacker, what would I do?
It’s a question that needs to be asked more and more regularly—and not just for brands, but for any individual or company with a presence on social media. Here’s the challenge for marketers: Think like someone exploiting your brand for money or publicity.
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