Domain phishing attacks cause some of the biggest disruptions for security and risk teams because they’re both common and easily unnoticed. There are over 4.2 million fraudulent websites targeting consumers on any given day, with consumers spending $1.2 trillion on fraudulent goods and services purchases from these sites that hide unnoticed by domain phishing protection programs.
How can you protect both your domain, but also your consumers, partners, employees, and in turn your business reputation? With effective domain phishing protection procedures, businesses can better manage the ongoing risk of domain phishing attacks and alleviate stress and consumer pain points with faster site takedowns.
What is Domain Phishing Protection?
Domain phishing protection involves many different processes organizations use to monitor for and remediate domain phishing attacks targeting their audience. These can be manual techniques or technology-based solutions that support your security team’s efforts in preventing cybersecurity attacks and fraudulent uses of your brand image.
Let’s take a step back, and quickly explain domain phishing. Domain phishing is a common cyber attack method where hackers create fake internet and email domains pretending to be legitimate organizations. They can then use the fictitious domains to trick users into clicking into their fake domain and divulging sensitive personal information, like credit card information, passwords, or social security numbers.
Domain phishing is also used to create fake product pages and solicit fraudulent purchases from customers, which can be a headache for businesses that have to deal with resulting financial and reputation damages. Hackers utilizing domain phishing attacks will spread their reach to target a business’s customers or prospect audience, but also their employees and business partners.
Domain phishing protection and defense from hackers is a critical cybersecurity practice for businesses, but it can be difficult to maintain a strategy that’s effective, without breaking the bank.
Is Domain Phishing the Same as Domain Spoofing?
Domain phishing and domain spoofing are in the same realm of cybersecurity attack methods used frequently by hackers, with just a slight difference.
Where domain phishing is when bad actors create fake domains in order to poach sensitive information and coerce fake purchases, domain spoofing is more specifically used to impersonate a person or business’s identity. Spoofing attacks can involve an account being compromised by hackers with the goal of impersonation, instead of strictly financial gain through external trickery like domain phishing.
Domain phishing protection techniques differ from domain spoofing protection techniques in terms of if you should focus more on external network protection versus internal training and phishing monitoring.
Manual vs Automated Domain Phishing Protection: Is One Better?
Traditionally, most cybersecurity protection practices were done in-house, and involved manual scanning and detection techniques. Security teams then had to work quickly to take down threats if they were detected, either through working with domain takedown providers through the DMCA takedown process, filing copyright infringement records with internet hosts, or other manual network protection techniques.
Some other manual domain phishing protection processes include employee training and detection efforts. Employee awareness training is still a common practice today, especially because employees are so frequently the target of attacks. A Stanford University study found that 88% of all data breaches could be linked to employee mistakes, highlighting the need for ongoing employee domain phishing protection training.
Domain phishing tactics often extend outside of work environments and can target employees through their personal emails, phones, or social media accounts. It’s important for employees to be continuously trained and aware of domain phishing trends and how to effectively engage in domain phishing protection.
Not all manual domain phishing protection practices are as effective as they once were. Organizations are experiencing a global shift in the digital economy, and while it’s promoting more efficient business practices, it’s also expanding network access to more potential bad actors. It’s almost impossible to effectively conduct domain phishing protection practices manually, and many organizations are turning to automated scanning and takedown tools.
What Are Common Domain Phishing Techniques?
Some of the most common domain spoofing examples to look out for include:
- Typosquat domains: These are fraudulent domains purchased by hackers, aimed to mimic the legitimate organization’s domain. Typosquat domains can have very small, not-obvious typos, that might slip by a user searching online (think if you’re looking for bolster.ai, but accidentally click on bOlster.ai)
- Email phishing: This common tactic is when hackers send emails using seemingly legit email domains, but again usually have slight variations or typos that might go unnoticed. These emails often contain encoded links or attachments.
- Social messaging: A technique that’s rapidly growing with the modern reliance on social media, this is when hackers will use fake social media profiles to message customers or employees with malicious links or attachments, similar to email phishing.
There are numerous versions of these domain phishing techniques that hackers are constantly evolving to trick consumers, and it can be difficult to manually monitor for threats, as well as keep track of the status of domain purchases and takedown processes.
What Are the Best Domain Spoofing Check Options?
Based on the growing domain phishing threat landscape, with evolving tactics getting better and better at tricking us into giving up our personal data, how can businesses protect their audience, and in turn their financial and reputational brand?
With automated phishing and scam solution technology, organizations of all sizes and cyber risk maturity levels can better engage in domain phishing protection. With the right tools, security teams can stop worrying about the day-to-day scanning and identification of threats, and can only put resources into cyber risks when they are deemed malicious.
Domain phishing protection with automated threat detection technology can help your team identify phishing scams fast, and conduct takedowns of those phishing domains before they’re able to access network data. With Boslter’s phishing and scam protection technology, customers are able to identify malicious domains as soon as they become active, and conduct takedowns in as quick as two minutes.
Bolster users can upload lists of domains they own, and see what typosquat domains or phishing instances are present on the internet. Bolster will automatically scan for threats, or potential instances of your domain or brand identity being used by domains that you don’t own, and then can immediately mark them as malicious. Depending on your organization’s preferences, you can also have Bolster automatically takedown malicious domains, without manual intervention. This greatly reduces the time threats are active against your network.
Discover Bolster for Domain Phishing Protection
To learn more about how Bolster can help your organization defend against phishing attacks without breaking the bank, request a free demo with our team today!
