Social Media and Security Risks
Image from: blog.clearrisk.com
Virus and malware attacks against organisations have increased because of employees using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media in the workplace, according to top global study.
Of the 4,640 organisations surveyed by the Ponemon Institute, a research firm, more than half said these computer attacks grew as a result of workers using social networks.
About a wuarter of those respondents said the attacks rose by more 50%.
As social media services play a bigger role in businesses, many organisations find themselves ill-equipped to handle the accompanying security risks, according to the report.
Researchers surveyed information-technology employees at organisations in the United States, India, Brazil, Germany and elsewhere, and found that only 35% had a policy on using those social media at work. Of those 35% enforce it.
“A lot of organisations still didn’t have an acceptable policy,” said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Traverse City, Michigan-based firm.
For those with social-media rules in place,”a policy that isn’t vigorously enforced isn’t meaningful, ” he said.
The virus and malware attacks use a simple approach to attract victims, according to security company Websense, which sponsored the survey.
“Most attacks are socially engineered driven,” said Patrick Runald, a researcher at San Diego-based Websense.
User may be enticed to click on a video, for example, “which takes you to a page off of Facebook, where they trick you into downloading something.” – Bloomberg