Loose Lips Sink Ships – And Businesses

Kaspersky Labs, the research arm of the Russian anti-malware software company, released some statistics that may not surprise you, but should concern you.

Among the statistics –

• 1 in 10 did not think that people outside of their friends could see their posts.  That’s actually a good thing – most people understand that their posts are not private because even if you set YOUR rules that way, once you hit that enter button, you have lost control.
• Around 12 percent said that they would add anyone to their friends list, whether they know them or not.
• 31 percent said that they will friend anyone if they have a friend in common.
• 26 percent said they would have no hesitation to clink on a link sent by a friend, without asking what it is or considering that the friend’s account could have been hacked.

I see posts all the time that say “at the airport on the way to …” or with pictures saying “having a great time in …”.  Burglars do troll social media and what this does is give them notice that probably no one is at your house and may not be for days.

Linked In gives away a different kind of information – what you do for a living, what tools you use and indirectly, instructions on how to hack your company.  If you say that you are an Oracle wiz at your company, it probably means that your company uses Oracle.  You just did an important piece of “recon” for me.

While I won’t be a Luddite and suggest that you don’t use social media, it is important that people consider what they are posting.  Certainly, configuring whatever social media platform to restrict who has access to your information and your posts is smart, but many people still don’t do that.  As I troll in my security business, I continue to be amazed at the number of people who do not lock down their profiles.  While this will not prevent crime, it will, at least, make the job a tiny little bit harder.

Even though every social media platform wants you to post your location, resist the urge, especially if you are going out of town.

Don’t post pictures from your trip until you are back.

We are beginning to see some insurance companies refusing to pay burglary claims for people that post TMI on social media.

For businesses, it is an education process – what can I post about work and what can’t I post;  how should I set my profiles, don’t click on links, stuff like that.  If 26% of your employees click on random links in social media, you are likely toast.

Just food for thought.  Life is a balance, this is no different.

Information for this post came from SC Magazine.

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