By Peter Davey, Director of Professional Services & Advanced Technical Support, Toshiba
Although most managers would certainly frown upon employees updating their social media status updates from 9-to-5, the likelihood of this happening in your office is probably pretty high. These employees may be department stars and simply under challenged in their current roles however by catching up with friends on Facebook and Twitter, they may also be compromising your computer network.
According to a 2013 Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, 43 percent of attacks used on social networking websites were related to malware. Considering malware is the most popular post on social media sites, this should be an area of concern for all organizations.
How can an organization reduce its exposure to cyber charlatans seeking to undermine your network? I suggest tackling this issue by creating and mandating a social media policy.
Considering job duties and responsibilities for one employee to another vary, a blanket policy may not work for everyone. Marketing staff – for example – may need to access such social media sites as LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook to perform research or develop and post content more so than those in logistics.
With this in mind, a social media policy may change from department to department. While laying out a company’s social policy should certainly be an important element of the on boarding process for new employees, it shouldn’t end there. Constant reinforcement is needed to stress the importance of the policy while emphasizing the potential damage inflicted should it be ignored.
Aside from providing constant reminders, a company should also provide routine training – ideally by information security experts – about the other consequences social media sites present. Aside from the inherent danger malware presents in destabilizing a company’s computer network, having an employee access their favorite social media portals on a corporate server increases an organization’s exposure to becoming a victim of phishing scams and unintended data sharing.
As one of our nation’s founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin pointed out, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” As was the case with the Sons of Liberty’s strategy sessions to secure our freedom long ago, holds true with respect to protecting your computer network today.
