Comments on: Biggest Danger on Social Networks Isn't Hackers, It's Dumb Employees

By: 10 Tips for Becoming a Smarter, Social Business Person « Morgan and Me | Intuitive Design & Strategy

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:59:57 +0000

[...] Remember your employer. Anything and everything you say is a direct reflection on those who employ you. Don’t use profanity. Don’t say nasty things about the competition. Just as you would at any [...]

By: 10 Tips for Becoming a Smarter Social Business Person « Socalyep's Blog

10 Tips for Becoming a Smarter Social Business Person « Socalyep's Blog — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:56:14 +0000

By: 10 Tips for Becoming a Smarter, Social Business Person – GigaOM « Real Life Hitch

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:33:21 +0000

By: 10 Tips for Becoming a Smarter, Social Business Person – GigaOM

10 Tips for Becoming a Smarter, Social Business Person – GigaOM — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:02:02 +0000

By: The dangers of social media « Media Update – The Blog

The dangers of social media « Media Update – The Blog — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:26:46 +0000

[...] five minutes to change your settings. People need to keep in mind that posting anything that goes¬†against the privacy of their company or clients could give competitors insight to your work progress, and [...]

By: Cyber Czar Is a Big Title for an Impossible Job

Cyber Czar Is a Big Title for an Impossible Job — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:01:14 +0000

[...] mean? Teaching the average person how to secure their own computing infrastructure and to be more security conscious will help. R&D and government procurement of secure hardware and software could benefit [...]

By: Manish Pahuja

Manish Pahuja — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:52:10 +0000

Social media can become another platform for disgruntled employees to spread rumors about the company they work for.

But I feel ultimately such employees do no good to their reputations as well. Who will like to trust such a guy with a job in his company? As is the norm, every good thing has a bad side to it as well and thankfully the weeds get driven out pretty quickly…

Manish

By: Vipul Suri

Vipul Suri — Sat, 09 May 2009 16:54:14 +0000

I think there is a very thin line between what should be an external communication and what should be internal. The best idea is to provide complete information about Company’s communication policies.

Working at Adobe helped me learn about this in a significant way as the management helps their teams to learn the effective way of communication to the outside world where they are involved.

Stopping the use of facebook etc will not help much considering the way we work today, it should be more sorted out at training rather than blocking employees visiting these websites.

-Vipul

By: April

April — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:39:07 +0000

The bigger question is, what should employers do about it? Social media is here to stay, and more and more people are destined to get involved in it. The only solutions hinted upon here involve blocking access….
As a communications professional, I think employers would do well not to prohibit participation in social media by their employees. That’s just asking for trouble. Sure, go ahead and block Twitter and Facebook from employees’ computers…for all the good that will do you. It might help with that pesky “productivity loss” statistic, but unless you can control what employees do on their *own* time with their own computers and mobile devices, all you’ll do is make them more determined to have a voice. (Employees don’t take kindly to “big brother” employer techniques, and the forbidden fruit always tastes the sweetest, anyway.)
My recommendation is make your policies clear about who can officially speak for the company and who cannot, and about what kind of information is shareable and what is proprietary. Educate workers in how to participate responsibly in social media, whether or not they intend to talk about their work. And by all means, ensure they know the consequences of failing to follow guidelines.
One final note to employers: If your employees love coming to work, are fully aligned with and informed about the company’s goals, and engaged in the company’s culture and mission, I’d warrant the risk of harm from their forays into social media is very slim. In fact, those employees are your greatest advocates. So when your external image or brand takes a hit from a disgruntled or misinformed worker, look to thineself first–You’re not doing your job as an employer, and you have an even bigger* internal* communications problem.

By: Internet Marketing, Strategy & Technology Links - May 7, 2009 « Sazbean

Internet Marketing, Strategy & Technology Links - May 7, 2009 « Sazbean — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:26:12 +0000

[...] Biggest Danger on Social Networks Isn’t Hackers, It’s Dumb Employees (GigaOM) [...]

By: Anthony

Anthony — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:21:37 +0000

Yup, employees divulging info in Web 2.0 sites isn’t unheard of.

By: Communities and Collaboration » Bookmarks for May 3rd through May 6th

Communities and Collaboration » Bookmarks for May 3rd through May 6th — Wed, 06 May 2009 09:00:34 +0000

[...] Biggest Danger on Social Networks Isn – Biggest danger on social networks isn’t hackers, it’s dumb employees http://is.gd/x0ox [...]

By: Jason Lackey

Jason Lackey — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:02:37 +0000

Rodnet – I think you nailed it. The big threat is not robotic DDOS attacks launched from the secret hacker headquarters in Bulgaria, the big threat is the clueless exec who uses his wife’s birthday or name as his password or the luckless soul who leaves roadmap.ppt or salaries.xls on a microSD card in a phone left in a taxi in Manhattan. If I put on brown overalls and got a rolling trashcan I could probably get into just about any company here in Silicon Valley and go up and down the rows in cubeland filling said trashcan with laptops, thumb drives and other stuff and nobody would say a word. Sometimes security seems like worrying about dying of some rare and exotic form of cancer when the house is on fire and a pissed off crackhead with an Uzi and a bloody machete is wanting my wallet. Cover the basics first, then worry about the corner cases.

By: RODNEY OLIVER

RODNEY OLIVER — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:32:33 +0000

Interesting comment:
“…while social media may be a growing target for hackers, the biggest danger to a company still comes from the damage a few stupid employees can create while using the sites.”

By: adamjackson

adamjackson — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:55:05 +0000

Makes total sense. I’ve personally seen situations where a hack is resolved and maybe the CEO has to make a statement how the company is beefing up security on their systems but most of the situations involve an employee who tweeted or blogged something that, to them, seemed trivial and day to day stuff.

Soon, that blog post cost the company millions of dollars.

By: benjaminwright

benjaminwright — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:53:34 +0000

A job is a precious thing. If abused, it can go away because the employment no longer makes economic sense. Many businesses are therefore justified in “protecting” employees from risks and temptations by blocking web 2.0 sites. http://computersafety.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/facebook-in-security/ –Ben