RE: News2 Jun 2020 08:12
Two Shields Investments plc
("TSI", or the "Company")
BrandShield Update Two Shields Investments plc, the AIM quoted investment company with a strategy to build a high-quality portfolio of investments in fast growing and scalable digital and technology enabled businesses, is pleased to reproduce the following announcement issued by BrandShield, in which it currently has an 11.34% shareholding and a Convertible Loan Note subscription of $1.8m:
"Levi Strauss & Co. Continues to Protect Its Brands Online During COVID Crisis With BrandShield's Help
June 2020: BrandShield, the cybersecurity company offering online threat intelligence for companies globally, announces it has neutralized over 150 phishing websites targeting the Levi Strauss & Co's brand as part of their scam. The number of sites taken down has doubled compared with previous months.
As millions of people are in lockdown and retail stores are closed across the world, online shopping has seen a massive upswing. This uptick in online commerce brings with it a rising tide of online threats. Hackers are stepping up their efforts to perform different scams against brands, employees, and customers.
During the month of April, BrandShield detected 429 new fraudulent domain names containing the name "Levis," a 40 percent increase since the crisis began. However, phishing and fraud targeting the Levi's brand are not constrained to just domain names with "Levis" in them. Even domains with unsuspicious names impersonate famous brands and falsely purport to sell their products. Such fraudulent sites steal money, data, login credentials, or credit card information. BrandShield was able to swiftly take down 90 percent of phishing and fraud sites targeting the Levi's brand and is continuously working to stop the activity of others.
Through artificial intelligence (AI) and big-data analytics, BrandShield has detected increased fraudulent activity in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, banking, entertainment, foreign exchange, gaming, and e-commerce. Among the thousands of threats BrandShield has detected and neutralized in the past years for Levi Strauss & Co., it has identified several fraud networks that have also threatened other companies that BrandShield works to protect. The companies have approached the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to cooperate in stopping the people behind these networks.