2.2.6 Competitive Intelligence

Competitive Intelligence Gathering

  • Competitive intelligence gathering is the process of identifying, gathering, analyzing, verifying, and using information about your competitors from resources such as the Internet.
  • Competitive intelligence is non-interfering and subtle in nature.
  • Sources of Competitive Intelligence:
    • Company websites and employment ads
    • Search engines, Internet, and online DB
    • Press releases and annual reports
    • Trade journals, conferences, and newspaper
    • Patent and trademarks
    • Social engineering employees
    • Product catalogues and retail outlets
    • Analyst and regulatory reports
    • Customer and vendor interviews
    • Agents, distributors, and suppliers

Competitive Intelligence - When Did this Company Begin? How Did it Develop?

Competitive Intelligence - What Are the Company's Plans?

Competitive Intelligence - What Expert Opinions Say About the Company

Monitoring Website Traffic of Target Company

  • Attacker uses website traffic monitoring tools such as web-stat, Alexa, Monitis, etc. to collect the information about target company:
    • Total visitors
    • Page views
    • Bounce rate
    • Live visitors map
    • Site ranking
  • Traffic monitoring helps to collect information about the target's customer base which help attackers to disguise as a customer and launch social engineering attacks on the target.

Tracking Online Reputation of the Target

  • Online Reputation Management (ORM) is a process of monitoring a company's reputation on Internet and taking certain measures to minimize the negative search results/reviews and thereby improve its brand reputation.
  • An attacker makes use of ORM tracking tools to:
    • Track company's online reputation
    • Collect company's search engine ranking information
    • Obtain email notifications when a company is mentioned online
    • Track conversations
    • Obtain social news about the target organization

Tools for Tracking Online Reputation of the Target

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