Why Digital Risk Protection Is Key To Robust Security Strategies

The threat landscape continues to evolve as digitisation increases. In an attempt to keep pace, organisations are adding new software to their tech stack, but are they choosing the right solutions and approach to ensure their security? When it comes to social and digital platforms, such as social media, online marketplaces, and recruiting sites, security teams can default to treating security threats reactively rather than proactively.

Enlightened organisations are turning to Digital Risk Protection (DRP) programs as a proactive security solution to protect their brand credibility, customers and employee safety online.

An effective DRP program enables an organisation to respond quickly to digital threats by taking down fraudulent websites, ads and social media accounts, notifying review sites and online forums about false and misleading postings and alerting online marketplaces and app stores to counterfeit merchandise and fake mobile apps. It should also provide IT groups with current threat intelligence to limit damage from data breaches by deactivating compromised user accounts, revoking stolen credentials, and strengthening security controls.

Here are three reasons why implementing the right DRP solution and approach is a critical piece of any organisation’s security defences:

Encompass the Breadth of Social and Digital Platforms

Security groups have extensive investments in staff and programs for detecting Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) on their network and systems, but what happens when an attacker targets their organisation’s Twitter page, LinkedIn or Facebook profile, Amazon marketplace listings, or ZipRecruiter page?

Most organisations have a technology stack that is enriched with cloud-based, external-facing applications. When malicious activity, like account hijacking, impersonations, and targeted phishing attacks occurs, it is subjected to public scrutiny. Thus, compromising a brand’s reputation and damaging trust. If an organization hasn’t invested resources in an effective DRP program to monitor for fraudulent or suspicious activity, they’re ripe for the picking.

A holistic DRP program will not just cover an organisation’s Facebook page or eBay store, but will instead offer security teams omnichannel visibility into the breadth of social and digital platforms comprising that organisation’s attack surface. This can include coverage of social media platforms, fraudulent domains, employee credentials on the dark web, counterfeit products being sold on Amazon and more. The expansive coverage a reputable DRP program offers combined with automation lifts the weight off of security teams’ shoulders to manually monitor threats entering their organisation’s digital footprint or manage multiple different technologies for different channels.

Analyze Threats Within the Complete Digital Footprint

Digital risk protection is not only about where to look, but also what to look for. Security teams need to investigate beyond the channels their organisation owns by:

• Finding all external references to their brands, products and employees.
• Determining where the references came from.
• Researching if the references are legitimate or signs of malicious activity.

These three steps may appear simple, but without the right solution, it’s impossible to examine all activity that treads into an organisation’s digital footprint.

DRP platforms provide tools to discover and assess references to names, brands, accounts, sites, products, executives, and employees associated with an organisation. There are several ways malicious activity can permeate an organisation’s digital footprint — the table below lists a few.

Remediate and Take Down Attacker Infrastructure

DRP programs are more than just a detection and analysis tool; they’re built with advanced artificial intelligence and sync via API integrations with hosts and networks to immediately take down credible threats. The true value of a DRP solution lies in the ability to stop an account hijacker in their tracks or shut down fraudulent behaviour the second it appears within an organisation’s digital footprint — before lasting damage is done.

Like all products on the market, not all DRP programs are the same. Consider the degree to which a DRP platform can streamline remediation and takedown activities by sending alert details and contextual information to SOC teams and analysts for rapid response and by facilitating automated takedown steps that are sent immediately to social network platforms and web site hosts.

The True Value of a DRP Program: Brand and Employee Digital Safety

Security teams are responsible to maintain security for network systems and software solutions, but if an attack occurs on a public-facing channel, employees and followers can fall victim to the scam — leading to a decline in public trust. Security teams must expand their scope and address this ever-increasing risk.

The right DRP program will identify threats infiltrating an organisation’s digital footprint, analyse their credibility, and take action to remediate malicious activity before it impacts the organisation’s reputation.