How Social Media Puts Businesses at Risk
Social media is becoming a concern for organizations that do not archive content and get caught off guard when e-discovery is required for legal purposes.
70% of organizations surveyed use Facebook for business reasons, 64% use LinkedIn and 56% use Twitter.
A large proportion use enterprise social media platforms, including Microsoft SharePoint (82%), Cisco social media tools (44%), Microsoft Yammer (23%), Salesforce Chatter (17%), and IBM Connections (8%).
Social media helps organizations become more efficient, helps users speed decision-making, and allows information sharing previously neither possible nor practical.
Social media increases the likelihood that malicious content will enter an organization. Malware infiltrated 18% of organizations through social media.
Social media increases the likelihood of breached sensitive or confidential data either through employees’ inadvertent actions, unmanaged sharing of geolocation data, or malicious employee activities.
43% of organizations that use enterprise social platform do not archive information from it. 26% have had to produce content for eDiscovery from the platform.
Organizations should address the risks associated with the use of social media implement the following best practices.
An internal audit of social media will help determine which tools are being used, why, and their business value.
Address employees’ use of social media tools, identify who should have rights to specific social media features and functions, and spell out the right of the organization to monitor, manage and archive social media use and content.
Deploy technologies that will mitigate risks from malware and other threats delivered through social media and corporate social networks.
Implement solutions to archive business records and other content on social media and corporate social networks.
Mitigate risks associated with consumer-focused social media tools with an enterprise social media solution that also enhances communication, collaboration and information sharing.