TALKING BUSINESS
A screenshot of CloneZone with a
spoof news article
A screenshot of the dark website
The Insider
and automated scripts from posting
advertisements indiscriminately across
these platforms.
Unsurprisingly, media organisations are
a particular target of purveyors of fake
news. Digital Shadows analysed the top
40 global news websites and checked
36
INTELLIGENTCIO
“Research
conducted by
Digital Shadows
reveals the
growth of
toolkits and
services aimed
specifically
at causing
financial and
reputational
damage for
companies.”
Retailers too are a target. One managed
service offers ‘Amazon ranking, reviews,
votes, listing optimisation and selling
promotions’ with pricing ranging from $5
for an unverified review, $10 for a verified
review, to a $500 monthly retainer.
The sheer availability of tools means
that barriers to entry are lower than
ever. It means this now extends beyond
geopolitical to financial interests that
affect businesses and consumers. Of
course, rumours, misinformation and
fake news have always been part of
human society. But what has changed
in the digital world is the speed such
techniques spread around the world,
and the fact tools are freely available
on the dark and surface web to enable
those wanting to carry out these sorts
of campaigns to do so easily and by
locating and using the services and tools
they need online.
Digital Shadows has issued the
following advice for firms looking to
combat disinformation:
over 85,000 possible variations on their
domain. In doing so, it discovered some
2,858 live spoof domains. Simply by
altering characters on a domain (e.g. a
‘m’ may have changed to an ‘rn’) and
by using cloning services it is possible
to create a fake website of a legitimate
news organisation that looks realistic.
• Combat domain spoofing –
organisations should proactively
monitor for the registration of
malicious domains and have a
defined process of dealing with
infringements when they occur.
An agile and scalable takedown
capability is critical for combating
domain spoofing
• Combat the ‘bots’ – monitor social
media for brand mentions and seek
to detect the ‘bots’ though it’s not
always immediately obvious, there
are often clues such as looking at
the age of the account, the content
being posted, and the number of
friends and followers
• Monitor forums for information
that could manipulate the share
price – organisations should search
for mentions of their brand or
staff across forums, which could
be instances of malicious actors
spreading misinformation
• Keep an eye on trending activity
– monitor trending activity as it
relates to an organisation’s digital
footprint and potentially identify
misinformation activity. n
www.intelligentcio.com