The brand damage is often twofold. First, there’s the initial fraud—lost sales, stolen data, or misdirected users. Then comes the media fallout, legal exposure, and erosion of customer confidence. The recent bankruptcy of 23andMe underscores this perfectly: While the data breach happened in 2023, the long-tail consequences—declining customer trust, class action lawsuits, and ultimately a loss in revenue—culminated in the company filing for bankruptcy in 2025. It’s a textbook case of how a cybersecurity failure, left unchecked, becomes a brand crisis.
What marketers can do now
It’s time to treat domain security as a core pillar of brand protection. That means:
- Working with legal and cybersecurity teams to map out a domain defense strategy.
- Registering key variations, including typo versions and new generic top-level domains such as .shop, .support, etc.
- Monitoring domain registrations in real time.
- Enrolling in trademark protection programs like ICANN’s Trademark Clearinghouse.
- Developing response protocols when spoofing incidents arise.
Brand safety in the age of AI
Just as programmatic ad fraud forced marketers to rethink digital placements, AI-fueled domain spoofing must reshape how we think about brand safety. More than stopping bad actors, this is about proactively defending the trust brands work so hard to earn.
As AI continues to evolve, so too must our brand protection strategies. Domain security can’t remain a reactive IT function. Rather, it must become a shared responsibility between cybersecurity, marketing, communications, and legal teams.
Because in today’s AI-driven, digital landscape, your domain is more than a URL—it’s your reputation.
