Social Media Security Threats and Practices for Secure Social Enterprise Networking System

This article discusses the various social media security threats such as fraud/phishing, malware/trojans, compliance pitfalls, and leaking sensitive information. It also provides practices for designing a secure social enterprise networking system, including developing a social media security policy, implementing a multidimensional, risk-based approach, identifying safe social networking sites, enhancing enterprise network visibility, classifying sensitive data, protecting endpoints, and educating employees.

Leaking Sensitive Information
This is the threat that occurs mostly due to human error. The employees may
unknowingly share potentially secured information such as personally identifiable
information. The leakage of such potentially valuable information may pose serious threat to
the organization as the information is shared to the attackers and is not restricted to the two
parties involved.
Fraud/Phishing
These attacks is a type of social engineering attack in which the attacker,
masquerading as a trusted official forces the victim to click on the malicious links via emails,
text messages, and instant messages. It is essentially meant to steal the user data such as the
login credentials, credit and debit card details as the details in the link appears official and
trusted.
Malware/Trojans
Malware often termed as malicious software is a file or a program that poses a threat
to the computer users. The software is meant to perform encryption of the files and leakage of
potentially secured information. It also incorporates the potential to delete the vital
information from the computer and usually transmitted through hyperlinks. Moreover, it also
spreads through online viewing a file and through e-mail attachments.
Compliance Pitfalls
The compliance pitfall constitutes a set of rules that are primarily designed to protect
the consumers from the incorrect information. The industries should maintain compliance
with the regulatory bodies such that the information can be constantly reviewed and
monitored by SEC, FINRA or IIROC.
Design of a secure social enterprise networking system and reasoning
The great utilization of social media poses a great threat to the security of the
computers as well as the users. Thus, it is the utmost need of almost all industries to take

preventive measures against the social media security threats such as phishing attacks, misuse
of fake accounts and social engineering attacks through proper understanding of the key
threats and the technique of attack. Moreover, there lies a dilemma as to suppress the
utilization of the social media bear the loss of productivity benefits or allow the utilization of
social media and indulge in data breach conditions and also incorporate malware infections.
The next part describes the practices that can be implemented to boost the security measures
of social media.
The utilization of social media imparts huge benefits to the organization but also
incorporates security issues. Thus, for the proper utilization of the social media the
organization should enforce security policies and undertake employee education. The
enforcement of stringent social media security policies and regulations could protect the
enterprise against security risk and embarrassment. The requirements for designing a social
media security plan are described below:
Develop a social media security policy
There is an utmost need of social media security policy that would govern the
utilization of the social media not only by the employees but also by the company as a whole.
The design of the policy should incorporate the requirements of the company and should also
consider the risk factors. Moreover, the success can be achieved only when the policies are
properly enforced to the employees and by the continuous monitoring of the implementation
of the policy.
Implementation of multidimensional, risk-based approach
The social media that incorporate poor security policies and poor management
systems are vulnerable to various security attacks. Moreover, there exists an ambiguity
between responsibility and ownership of the information on the social media. Thus, stringent
security policies need to be implemented. Social media security strategy should be enhanced,

multi layered. Moreover, it should be based on risk mitigation and information centric
consisting of tools and mitigations for the risk imparted by the social media.
Identify safe social networking sites
The social media that incorporate strict social media security policies should be utilized as
there exists numerous social media that are not safe and pose serious threat to the computer
security.
Enhance enterprise network visibility
Social media security policies should be designed so as to monitor, detect, and mitigate
incidents. The greater network visibility allows the social media to detect threat and provide
mitigation as required. This can be achieved through the utilization of data loss prevention
activities and web content filtering.
Classify sensitive data
The enterprises need to identify the sensitive data while defining social media security
policies. Classification of sensitive data includes protection of the employees from the Image
spammers. In image spamming the recipient sends request to the spammer’s server thereby
hosting the image each time the spam mail is operated and thus, revealing the email address.
Protect endpoints
The social networking sites are utilized through multiple endpoints such as
Smartphone, laptops and desktops. Thus, the enterprise should maintain high protection in the
endpoint usage. Social media security policies should be implemented on the sites that the
device would access.
Educate employees
With the increased security risks of malware it is required to inform and educate the
employees of the harmful effects of clicking on links from unfamiliar sites. Moreover, the
employees should posses the discretion as to which URL should be viewed and which should

be neglected thus, avoiding the malicious links. This would also prevent the computers and
the company’s network from the malicious softwares. Moreover, the social media security
strategy should also educate the employees about what details should be made public about
the organization.