How Safe Are You On Social Media?
This week we welcome James C. Foster; CEO of Maryland-based security firm ZeroFOX. Foster and his organization are working to protect against threats on social media and other digital communication channels. The ZeroFOX platform is a cloud platform designed to monitor social media entities (accounts, people, keywords, hashtags, etc.) and detect cyber security threats impacting your organization. Foster, a security industry titan sat down to speak with our team to discuss the many threats we face as individuals and as an organization through our activity on social media. Why is Social Media Such a Target?
According to Foster, social media is the largest, fastest-growing digital communication platform there has ever been. It outpaced email in 2014 and is on pace to outgrow the web by 2017. For some, especially the growing, tech-dependent generations, it replaces email, text message and other Internet usage with much greater risk. Why is ZeroFOX relevant now? The security technology and best practices haven’t caught up yet. Foster compares our security positioning toward social media to the first generation of email. These days, you would never open an email and download an attachment from an unknown source—assuming a malicious email even penetrated your company’s protection systems. That attitude and behavior is only widely practiced after years of user and protection maturity. Behaviors on social media just aren’t there yet.
The Takeaway?
Social media isn’t going anywhere. Foster believes that it will become a powerful weapon for companies who embrace it and a major weakness for those who ignore it. Those who learn to enable and harness the power of the major social platforms while creating a corporate strategy for risk management and governance will ultimately succeed.
To learn more about what ZeroFOX does, check out their website.
