What are Online Risks?
Social Engineering is a growing and dangerous risk to everyone. Those attempting to commit social engineering are trying to deceive or manipulate in order to gain something personal and therefore valuable. The criminal may pose as a legitimate company or person to trick their targets into giving them login credentials, financial information or any other types of data they can use for their purposes. A recent example is a proliferation of attacks on Facebook by individuals posing as Meta representatives advising you that you have breached copyright or intellectual property provisions and that your account will be banned if you do not act immediately. They usually provide a link for you to click on which is then used to spread malware.
Social Engineering
This is a growing and extremely dangerous crime that particularly targets young and vulnerable victims. The victim is coerced into sharing intimate or sexual images/videos and then blackmailed in order to extort sexual favours, money or other benefits from them under the threat of sharing the material beyond the consent of the depicted person (e.g. posting images on social media). Often, the influence and manipulation typical of groomers over longer periods of time (sometimes several months) turns into a rapid escalation of threats, intimidation and coercion once the person has been persuaded to send the first sexual images of themself. These criminal acts happen across all social media platforms, messaging apps and email. They are increasingly making use of AI to enhance and generate imagery to manipulate the victim into sharing their own personal images or videos.
Sextortion
Misinformation
Refers to false or misleading information. It can include, incomplete or false claims. Unlike disinformation, which is intentionally deceptive misinformation may not always have malicious intent. For instance, someone might unknowingly share false information, like a rumour on social media, believing it to be true.
Defamation
Publishing false and damaging statements about you that harms your reputation. This can occur through various forms of online communication, including posts, comments, tweets, images, and videos.
Disgruntled Individual
Individuals who express dissatisfaction, frustration, or anger about their workplace, specific co-employees or a specific business experience they had through social media platforms. This discontent can be publicly shared in various forms, such as posts, comments, reviews, or videos, and can include negative reviews, disclosing confidential or proprietary information about a business or other individual online, criticising or attacking managers, coworkers, or a business's leadership online.
The use of technology to bully or ridicule someone by deliberately engaging in behaviour to hurt them socially, emotionally, psychologically or even physically. This can include abusive texts and emails, hurtful messages, images or videos, spreading damaging gossip, or creating fake accounts to trick or humiliate you.
Bullying and Harassment
Review Sites
Platforms or pages where users post reviews or comments can cause damage to you depending on the intention. These sites often feature content that is defamatory, misleading, or maliciously negative. Examples include publishing reviews that are false and not based on actual experiences, revealing personal information about individuals in reviews which is a breach of privacy, or just general offensive language used. Harmful reviews can influence public perception and decision-making, potentially leading to loss of business, mental health issues, and other negative impacts.
Trademark and Copyright Infringements
Your trademark is used, such as your logo, brand name, or slogan without your permission, in a way that is likely to cause confusion among consumers about the source or endorsement of goods or services or is attached to offensive content that you do not wish to be associated with. For example someone uses your brand’s logo or name as their profile picture or username and uses the profile to post vile content or pictures of your staff.
Your copyrighted material such as text, images, or videos you posted online is used without your permission. For example someone posting photos or videos you created without proper attribution or your permission.
Refers to false information deliberately and often covertly spread with the intent to influence public opinion or obscure the truth. This information is intentionally deceptive and can consist of partially or completely fabricated details, exaggerations, or omissions, and it may appear in various forms such as text, audio, or imagery.
Disinformation
Personal Information
The intentional online exposure of an individual’s identity, personal details or sensitive information without their consent and with the intention of placing them at risk of harm.
Hate Speech
Any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour that attacks or uses disparaging or discriminatory language against a person or groups based on their attributes such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other characteristics. This type of speech often incites violence, hostility, or prejudice, and can create an environment of fear and exclusion.
Impersonation
Posing as an existing person, group or organisation in a confusing or deceptive manner. This can include creating fake social media profiles to mimic a genuine account and fake websites that have been cloned to dupe people into believing it is a genuine website of a business.
How We Protect You
Prevent
We are the 24/7 Online Help that every business needs for security and peace of mind.
We will assess your business and any incident of online harm and give you the strategy and solutions to
prevent immediate and future risk.
Protect
Online is 24/7 and so is our live tracking and monitoring proprietary software and risk
analysis.
A monitored alarm system that provides 24/7 identification, assessmentand
priority escalation system -
putting you back in control of your online presence.
Fix
Online risk is complex with multiple layers and pathways - our experts in mitigation forensically
assess and mitigate online harm with the object of removal.
Immediate solutions and strategies for securing your reputation online.