�MarkMonitor�, the global leader in enterprise brand protection, released the Summer 2008 Brandjacking Index�, reporting that brandjackers more and more abuse top-ranked pharmaceutical brands, endangering consumers via a supply chain compromised by the sale of questionable prescription drugs through doubtful online pharmacies and exchange sites. The report also found that cybersquatting of leading brands has reached an all-time high and that phishers are targeting an increased number of diverse organizations for the first time.
"Our year-over-year trend information shows a grave office: The number of people looking to save money by purchasing pharmaceuticals over the Web is ontogeny rapidly patch scammers are more aggressively exploiting free controls over online gross sales of drugs," said Irfan Salim, president of the United States and chieftain executive officeholder of MarkMonitor. "As consumers increasingly turn to the Internet to buy medications, brandholders must ensure these customers are not faced with the potentially severe risk of buying imposter or deficient medications."
The quarterly MarkMonitor Brandjacking Index is an independent news report that measures the consequence of online threats to brands and investigates trends, including drilled-down analysis of how the most pop brands are abused online and the industries where abuse is causing the most impairment. In addition to on-going tracking of 30 leading brands as identified by Interbrand, the summer paper includes a research stress on on-line abuses of pharmaceutical brands, including an investigation of suspicious on-line pharmacies.
The report's drug, channel abuse and search engine advertising data for the online pharmaceutical market is based on six-spot leading do drugs brands: trey of the highest-ranking do drugs products according to the "Top 200 Brands for 2007 by U.S. Sales" study by Drugs.com, and three of the most popular do drugs products on-line. The information is compared to and analyzed against research conducted by MarkMonitor in August 2007 to provide a benchmark for trends.
Following are prize findings from the MarkMonitor Summer 2008 Brandjacking Index:
Online gross revenue of role player, expired or gray-market drugs continue to grow as traffic to questionable sites triples and marketing maneuver become progressively aggressive.
- Of the 2,986 online pharmacies studies, exclusively two are Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS), the industry credential that assures consumers of legitimate online pharmacy operations.
- More than tierce of the online pharmacies in the study generate enough traffic to meritoriousness an Alexa ranking. Each of these sites sees an mediocre of 99,000 visitors daily, more than three-base hit the casual visitors celebrated in 2007. Using industriousness statistics for traffic conversion and modal order sizes, MarkMonitor estimates that this traffic converts to $12 billion in annual gross revenue for the six drug brands studied, an increase from the 2007 estimate of $4 billion.
- Marketers for these pharmacies and sites are becoming progressively aggressive. MarkMonitor estimates brandjackers spend $26 million annually for search advertising exploitation only those six keywords.
- Representative sampling of pricing for one popular drug brand shows an 85% average price discount at illicit pharmacies when compared to certified pharmacies.
- 64 percent of these 2,986 pharmacies do not secure customer data, putting consumers' indistinguishability information at risk. This number has grown compared to 50 percent last year.
- 49 percent of the 2,986 pharmacies were hosted in the U.S., followed by the U.K., which hosted 12 percent, and Germany, which hosted 9 percent.
- Exchange sites that sell pharmaceuticals in bulk quantities by the pill as easily as sell active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) risk degrading the boilers suit drug provide chain. Analysis of just 40 listings on exchange and trade sites shows a $30 million in large quantities market for the six brands studied.
- 60 per centum of pharmacies identified in 2007 ar still operating, and 59 percent of online exchange listings identified in 2007 remain active.
Brandjackers proceed to focus their attention on cybersquatting to clapperclaw leading brands as well as pharmaceutical brands.
- Cybersquatting - the registration of domain name calling containing a brand, catchword or hallmark to which the registrant has no right . of drug brands rose 35 percent for the year and eCommerce sites for these drug brands rose by 66 percent for the year.
- Cybersquatting of mainstream brands continued its position as the brandjacker's tool of choice with 428,617 instances during the second quarter of 2008. This growing trend in cybersquatting shows a 38-percent increment compared with the late year.
- The media and automotive industries continue to be the most frequently targeted by brandjackers. The media industry experienced 41,797 instances of brandjacking in Q2 2008, a 17-percent increase since Q2 2007. The automotive manufacture experienced 27,600 instances of brandjacking in Q2 2008, a 60-percent increase since Q2 2007.
- Brandjacking of the apparel diligence grew by 68 per centum over the year, the greatest yearly increase of any category. In parallel, the opulence industry grew at the greatest rate for the quarter at 30 per centum.
- Three out of quartet brandjacking sites are hosted in the U.S., a 55-percent step-up compared to Q1 2008. Germany continued in the No. 2 spot with 5 pct of brandjacking sites, piece China moved from the seventh side to the third.
Phishers alternate their quarterly focus between auction and financial institutions; 81 percent of all phishing URLs target a little number of companies.
- 35 percent of the 485 organizations phished in Q2 2008 were phished for the first clip. The total number of organizations phished this quarter increased 19.5 percentage since final quarter and 20 percentage since last-place year.
- Phishing attacks against financial sites increased by 66 percent in Q2 2008 compared to Q1 2008, spell phishing attacks against auction bridge sites reduced by 50 percent, demonstrating a cyclical change of focus by phishers.
- 35 percent of phishing sites were hosted in the U.S. in Q2 2008 compared to 67 pct in Q2 2007. The U.S. continued a substantial lead among hosting countries; China followed in arcsecond place with 8 percentage of phishing sites.
The cornerstone of the Brandjacking Index is the volume of public data analyzed by MarkMonitor using the company's proprietary algorithms; no customer data or proprietary customer information is used to create the Brandjacking Index. MarkMonitor searches about 134 one thousand thousand public records daily for brand mistreat in world data as well as U.S. and international patent and hallmark office data.
The phishing data MarkMonitor analyzes is based on feeds from leading international Internet service providers (ISPs), e-mail providers and other alliance partners. The caller has scanned billions of Web pages since November 2004 and processes up to 16 million unequaled suspected phishing e-mails daily.
About MarkMonitor
MarkMonitor, the global leader in endeavour brand protection, offers comprehensive solutions and services that safeguard brands, reputation and revenue from online risks. With end-to-end solutions that address the growing threats of online fraud, brand abuse and unauthorized channels, MarkMonitor enables a secure Internet for businesses and their customers. The company's exclusive access to information combined with its patented real-time prevention, detection and response capabilities provide wide-ranging protection to the ever-changing online risks faced by brands today.
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