My Google ranking has been stolen (hijacking or brand and keyword kidnapping), this is how our client’s email began. An online store selling products from well-known and recognized brands suffered a ranking attack on its brand, with this online store being duplicated, triplicated, and copied “n” times on multiple Chinese domains and other locations.

On this occasion, we are once again discussing an attack with three types of consequences, reiterating our registered theory of the RSL triangle.

The main short-term consequences for the brand are loss of sales and loss of reputation:

1. Users believe they are making purchases from the original store, but they are doing so from the Chinese pages. The appearance is absolutely the same, including the brand name.
2. Evidently, they are buying copied products, not originals at original prices, or in some cases, as a lure, cheaper ones.
3. Temporary loss of ranking for the brand’s own domain and its keywords .
4. Loss of credibility among users who fell victim to the attack and whose experience is that they have been defrauded.

Cybersecurity Consequences

1. Actions to resolve this situation involve implementing reactive and preventive security measures,
   1. Monitoring
   2. Reporting incidents to platforms and to the police/court
2. It is important to allocate a portion of our budget for the attack that is earmarked for all the measures that must be implemented. It is essential to have digital protection insurance that guarantees at least the recovery of the incident’s investment.

Criminal legal consequences for being a victim; be careful, you can go from victim to aggressor without realizing it.

1. Safeguard your potential civil liability: The competent authority must be informed to safeguard our civil liability, as both users and the brands themselves can take legal action against us.
2. Collaboration and reporting are paramount. If all affected brands, all websites and online stores, and users inform the authorities and report incidents, the investigation becomes easier because more pieces of the puzzle are on the table. For example, the use of the same infrastructures, the use of the same domain registration websites, the same modus operandi, the same sector, market, country, location, IPs…

These attacks are increasingly common. Brands must be aware of this type of attack and should create a reputation cabinet with members from the three professional disciplines (corporate security, legal counsel, and communication “reputation”) so that the incident response is more efficient, timely, and appropriate.

Recommendations for those affected

You need professional help. To put it simply, we’ll use an analogy: if you have a rare disease, you wouldn’t identify it yourself or try to self-medicate, would you? Write to us, call us, get in touch with us. We will provide advice and support for the collection of expert evidence, and we will jointly take reactive and preventive measures. We will help you make decisions and implement reaction and normalization measures. We will be the interlocutors with your legal team, your programming professionals, and your agency, Dircom, or Head of Communication, both digital and conventional.

Silence and inactivity are already a response, but not always the most appropriate, and certainly not the most effective.