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Cybersquatting and Abuse to Mainstream Consumer Brands Intensified in 2007, According to Year-Long Trend Report by MarkMonitor
Business Wire, Feb 25, 2008
Winter Brandjacking Index[TM] Also Finds That Phishers Are Shifting Focus to New Industries, Targeting More Organizations and Refining Tactics
SAN FRANCISCO -- MarkMonitor[R], the global leader in enterprise brand protection, today released the company's latest Brandjacking Index[TM], which finds that cybersquatting is the most common form of brand abuse--with a 33 percent jump in one year--and that brandjackers are abusing an expanding range of brands that consumers use everyday. The report also shows recent and significant drops in domain kiting and related pay-per-click fraud, indicating that aggressive legal action on the part of brandholders as well as ICANN scrutiny are proving effective in deterring specific brandjacking techniques. In addition, phishing techniques and targets continued in 2007 to evolve with a 533 percent increase in phish attacks against the retail and services sector.
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The MarkMonitor Winter 2007 Brandjacking Index measures the effect of online threats to brands quarter-over-quarter throughout 2007. The Brandjacking Index 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 examines how brandjacking tactics -- such as cybersquatting, false association, pay-per-click (PPC) fraud, domain kiting, objectionable content, unauthorized sales channels and phishing -- have changed over the past year.
"Brandjackers continue to sharpen their techniques to reap greater profits, as demonstrated by this quarter's accelerated threats to mainstream industries and their customers," said Irfan Salim, president and chief executive officer 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."
Following are select findings from the MarkMonitor Winter 2007 Brandjacking Index:
Cybersquatting continues to grow as brandjackers find new ways to source income.
* Cybersquatting rose 33 percent over 2007, making it the most perpetrated form of abuse.
* 382,248 instances of cybersquatting were identified in Q4, followed by 72,582 instances of false association and 27,098 instances of pay-per-click fraud.
* Sizable quarter-over-quarter increases in cybersquatting signify increased use of brand names and trademarks to drive traffic to illegitimate, unauthorized or offensive sites through search engines.
Litigation by brandholders and increased ICANN scrutiny have significantly reduced domain kiting and related pay-per-click fraud.
* Instances of domain kiting dropped to a yearly low of 9,426 in Q4. Domain kiting declined 14 percent overall in 2007, overcoming a spike in Q2 of 37,634 instances.
* The decline in domain kiting is closely linked with multiple aggressive, successful lawsuits filed by large brand holders against enabling registrars. Creative legal tactics including application of laws against cybersquatting and counterfeiting contributed to the decline.
* Instances of pay-per-click fraud, an abuse closely associated with domain kiting, also dropped to a yearly low of 27,098 in Q4. Brandjackers use this inexpensive technique to generate revenue through paid advertisements for competing brands, unrelated products and services as well as vendors selling counterfeit products.
Paid search abuse declines, blended abuse is increasingly prevalent
* Paid search abuse against retail brands continued to decrease in 2007, with a notable decline of 56 percent against this category in the first month of 2008.
* Paid search abuses in Q4 were commonly linked with questionable "pop-ups", e-commerce abuses and other risks; this form of blended abuses is indicative of added fraud.
Brandjackers increasingly shift focus to mainstream industry targets including automotive, food and beverage and consumer packaged goods
* Abuses of automotive brands increased by 83 percent in 2007 with 94,809 instances noted in Q4 alone. Similarly, food and beverage brand abuse increased 63 percent, consumer packaged goods increased 62 percent and apparel increased 49 percent.
* Traditional brandjacking targets continued to rise at modest rates. Financial brand abuse for 2007 rose 23 percent and media rose 38 percent.
* The only industry segment to decline in 2007 was high technology which shrank slightly by 10 percent from 57,215 instances of abuse in Q1 to 51,673 instances in Q4.
The United States, Germany and the United Kingdom host the majority of brandjacking Web sites
* While brand abusers can be located anywhere in the world, their top countries for site hosting remained constant throughout 2007. The United States is home to 68 percent of web sites that host brand abuse. Germany hosts 9 percent followed by the United Kingdom at 4 percent. Canada hosts 4 percent.
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