Committees like the one at Caterpillar, are often comprised of representatives from an organization's legal, marketing, security and human resource departments, according to Michael Rasmussen, president of Corporate Integrity, LLC, a Wisconsin-based consultancy that specializes in governance, risk, and compliance. Many companies are now using brand integrity issues as a way to put a positive spin on a company image, he said. More than 25 percent of the Global 100 firms include elements of security and privacy in their corporate social responsibility reports.

"The idea is that part of being a good corporate citizen and protecting the community is going above and beyond and protecting information," said Rasmussen.

But a proactive plan and committee may not be nearly enough, according to Aon Corporation, a provider of risk management services. In a recent survey, Aon polled organizations in more than 40 countries and across 31 industries to find out their views of emerging and escalating business risks. According to the resulting 2009 Global Risk Management Survey report, damage to reputation was the sixth biggest concern among those polled. And a study released this month by the Chief Marketing Officer Council reports organizations' concern over brand management and brand infection is growing as the down economy fuels increasingly global and organized counterfeiting operations. A global audit of 306 marketers found marketers are reporting a greater number of incidents or fraud online with 29.5 percent who said their chief vulnerability is in the digital world.

Online brand attacks can include cybersquatting, the practice of registering, trafficking in or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else (Read a report on cybersquatting growth here). Those who took part in the CMO study said brand value, trust, integrity and reputation are being significantly eroded and damaged as a result of grey market knock-offs, phishing attacks, cyber squatting, email scams, trademark abuse, copyright and patent infringements, and other malevolent forms of brand corruption online.

"Brand attacks, whether through online scams, phishing or cybersquatting, impact brand integrity and reputation immediately because the malicious activities are customer-facing and affect the heart of what contributes to underlying brand value; customer perception," said Frederick Felman, chief marketing officer of MarkMonitor.

CISOs are often involved with implementing plans for combating phishing, often through communication campaigns, said Rasmussen. And intellectual property protection has become an area of concern for CISOs now, too.

"It's not just brand protection to the world," said Rasmussen. "But also to business partners."