Someone in the credit union world just sent me an article (forwarded from their boss) from American Banker (December) titled, “Social Media’s a Victim of its Success,” and I’ve copied a portion of it below for you read.
“Social media’s become mainstream, and that’s undeniably a good thing for financial institutions in search of a new venue to leverage peer comparisons and other emerging customer service tools. But the downside is as more demographic groups get on board, the fruit starts to hang low for crooks.
Attacks on social media sites will jump in 2010, says data security firm Imperva, which lists social media breaches as one of the top five data security trends for 2010—noting that new and less technically savvy groups are more susceptible to phishing attacks and malware than segments that have actually heard the terms “phishing” and “malware.””
The article continue to talk about how social media sites make users vulnerable, but then highlighted the corporate impact as well.
“In its crystal ball, security information and event management firm TriGeo Network Security also says social networking sites will be one of the biggest security threats for the new year. Michelle Dickman, president and CEO of TriGeo Network Security says the employees’ tweets, along with other online chatter, can inadvertently hand hackers the “inside” information needed to penetrate corporate networks. Dickman says companies only have two options: block access to social networking sites or enforce strict policies.
The rest of TriGeo Network Security’s list includes: fewer breaches, but greater losses due to greater impact of those breaches; more state-level data breach laws; retailers will be the number one target for attacks; and increased vigilance from auditors, who will demand greater demonstration of security processes, risk assessment, penetration testing, employee training and policy verification.”
This article seemed like common sense to me, but I knew it could potentially set off alarms for folks that aren’t overly Web savvy. That being said, I felt compelled to respond and wanted to share that response with you.
“These types of articles highlight the importance of responsible Web surfing by all parties involved. No matter what [any business] chooses to do, Joe Customer will be susceptible to fraud (in any form) by utilizing the Internet, which of course includes social media.
From a corporate standpoint, it’s important to make consumers aware of harmful Web issues and do everything possible to proactively keep them, and their financial information, safe.”
I have a huge appreciation for Web safety, but like to address these types of articles because they could completely derail someone’s social media plans – which would be very bad.
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About the Author
Marketing & PR pro. Social media user, cyclist, inline speed skater, volunteer, blogger, public speaker. Founded Fashables. Work at Ketchum. And I’m goofy.