With Australians losing billions of dollars to scams each year, the need for effective countermeasures has never been more urgent.
Baidam and Infoblox have risen to the challenge by creating a revolutionary new service designed to disrupt the operations of scam websites.
This industry-first capability comes as the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) National Anti-Scam Centre reported that Australians lost $2.74 billion to scams including investment, identity theft, and online shopping scams in 2023. Fraudulent websites targeting Australians with investment scams were a major factor, leading the Government to ‘boost work by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to identify and take down investment scam websites’.
Baidam CEO Jack Reis says fraudulent domains are a rising threat for any organisation – from sole traders to major enterprises – but indigenous and regional businesses could be particularly vulnerable to internet fraud. The ACCC report highlighted First Nations people reported almost double the number of scams in 2023 compared with 2022.
“There are parts of Australia where the internet is very new, or not available yet at all,” said Reis. “It’s one of the most important resources we can bring to the bush, but lack of experience and education on cybersecurity and online scams can leave indigenous people and businesses more vulnerable.
“Together with Infoblox, we’re committed to helping organisations across Australia maintain a secure and trustworthy online presence and quickly mitigate the impact of fraudulent or lookalike websites.”
Baidam Takedown Services operate out of the company’s Gundan Security Operations Centre (SOC) in Brisbane, Australia’s first Indigenous designed and managed SOC. The centre was opened by Minister for Cyber Security Clare O’Neil and was built using an Indigenous co-design methodology. Baidam provides training and experience that offers pathways for First Nations people to become cyber leaders.
The takedown service weaves together Infoblox’s validation, mitigation, monitoring and reporting features by using DNS to track, identify, confirm and remove websites way quicker than the typical industry response time, which can range from months to never. Infoblox leverages rapid escalation, its DNS and threat intelligence expertise, backed by its relationships with Australian and global internet service providers (ISPs), telcos, and domain administrators to achieve this.
This service can also track and remove stolen proprietary information – including access credentials, personally identifiable information, and credit card data – from online forums or fraudulent hosts. Further, it can confirm the existence of potential malware and remove malicious files from organisations’ legitimate websites.
Infoblox Australia and New Zealand Managing Director Scott Morris says that internet fraud can be the spark that ignites other malicious activity, including ransomware, as stolen credentials taken through fake websites, imitated multi-factor authentication (MFA) and phishing campaigns that are often used to conduct these attacks.
“We’re seeing internet fraud playing a more prominent role in how cybercriminals infiltrate organisations in Australia,” said Morris. “Our takedown service helps companies neutralize fraudulent domains impersonating them for criminal activities. While blocking malicious domains should be a priority for every user, this takedown service lets companies become proactive in defending their good name and customers. We’re incredibly proud to work alongside Baidam as one of the nation’s most trusted cybersecurity providers to reduce these risks.”
Baidam’s Infoblox-supported Takedown Services are available across Australia now. Organisations can purchase or pre-purchase ‘packs’ of takedowns for current or future suspected fraudulent websites and domains.
For more information on Baidam Takedown Services, click here. For more information on Infoblox’s domain mitigation services, click here.
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