BrandShield 2020: Where next?
In 2011, we wrote a paper discussing a major problem: We noticed that brands struggle with assigning who’s responsible for brand protection to the right department within the organization.
Brand protection had become a hot potato that no one wanted to own. Some felt that Security teams are responsible for it by definition, others noted that the marketing implications played a major role, and many felt that the Legal team needs to step in. As we examined the situation, it became clear that everyone was right but no real solution managed to cover all the bases.
From Idea to Funding
With this exciting idea in mind and a business plan detailing it, we set out to establish BrandShield as a company. Backed by early investors and supporters that included tech leaders, angel investors Gigi Levy-Weiss and Sophia Bekele, we gained more confidence in our vision and the team’s ability to execute it.
We started out by building a technology tool that detected online counterfeits and trademark infringements so legal teams could remove these violations. However, when protecting brands in the cryptocurrency field, we soon noticed that fraudsters and phishers were using the same malicious methods chosen by counterfeiters and trademark infringers.
We then set out to build a full-stack anti-phishing & brand protection detection to takedown solution.
Coining Online Threat Hunting
We wanted to create a comprehensive, full-stack solution that offers control over the situation rather than passively waiting for attacks to take place. The fact that we coined the term “online threat hunting” made it clear that a more result-oriented attitude was needed.
Addressing online arenas like eBay, Alibaba, Amazon, mobile apps, online ads, and social media networks became a key goal for BrandShield. There was plenty of ground to cover and any other option would have left brands exposed to risk.
Examining the relentless and disturbing work of phishers and fraudsters taught us that there’s a lot of method to this madness and the same specific paths are taken by many of the counterfeiters and trademark infringers we wanted to protect brands from. The idea was to detect these threats and offer much needed legal advice in order to mitigate them.
Brandshield 2020
This vision continued to evolve and became the brand protection & cybersecurity solution that BrandShield offers today. A solution that reveals the source of these online threats and shuts down social media phishing attempts, fraudulent websites, fake domain names, and much more. This 360° approach is what sets BrandShield apart and provides answers to all the teams affected by issues.
I’m proud to say that we serve customers of all sizes and from a wide range of industries, including big blue-chip enterprises, medium and small-sized companies. What all of our customers have in common is a deeper understanding of the need for true brand protection. The results we gather from clients help us constantly improve our product and services.
What’s next?
I believe that in five years’ time, brand protection will become an industry standard as most companies come to realize the broad impact of security threats and online fraud, as well as the need for a full-stack solution. Sure, threats will continue to evolve and new platforms will come into play, but BrandShield will never stop investing in developing advanced technology to answer the latest brand protection needs.
Even though we’ve come a long way, it is only the beginning of BrandShield’s journey.
