February 27, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Corporate identity protection provider MarkMonitor (markmonitor.com) announced on Monday that its recent Brandjacking Index report found that cybersquatting and abuse to mainstream consumer brands intensified in 2007.
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The report also showed significant drops in domain kiting and related pay-per-click fraud, indicating that aggressive legal action on the part of brand holders as well as ICANN scrutiny have been proving effective in deterring specific brandjacking techniques. In addition, phishing techniques and targets have continued to evolve in 2007 with a 533 percent increase in phishing attacks against the retail and services sector.
MarkMonitor's Brandjacking Index measures the effect of online threats to brands and investigates trends, including drilled-down analysis of how the most popular brands are abused online and the industries in which abuse is causing the most damage. The report also examines how brandjacking tactics, such as cybersquatting, false association, PPC fraud, domain kiting, objectionable content, unauthorized sales channels and phishing have changed over the past year, says the organization.
"Brandjackers continue to sharpen their techniques to reap greater profits, as demonstrated by this quarter's accelerated threats to mainstream industries and their customers," says Irfan Salim, president and CEO of MarkMonitor. "But brandholders have proven they can fight back; we've witnessed an incredible turn-around in domain kiting and pay-per-click abuse. This should encourage all brandholders to be vigilant about protecting their brands and their customers against evolving threats."
