14 DAY TRIAL // Social media usage inside companies is not something to wonder about and remain in awe, as it was a few years back, but quite the opposite, as these days, many organizations rely on it to boost their business.
If we're talking about social media usage at a corporate level or social media usage at the employee, personal level, this type of behavior has grown tremendously inside companies, and cyber-threat actors are leveraging its expanded use.
A study by Osterman Research reveals that 73 percent of all surveyed companies have a Facebook account and use it for business reasons, 64 percent use LinkedIn, and 56 percent employ Twitter.
Additionally, the usage of closed-circuit social platforms such as Microsoft SharePoint, Cisco social platforms (Jabber, WebEx, WebEx Social), Microsoft Yammer, Salesforce Chatter, and IBM Connections has also grown in the past years.
All of these platforms, regardless of the methods and the reasons each business deploys them, are contributing to the proliferation and easier distribution of malware among their employees and infrastructure.
Social media is not the preferred method for malware infection
Osterman claims that 18 percent of surveyed companies have experienced malware infiltration through social media platforms.
These tools and platforms have helped malware spread from employee to employee or have been an initial entry point for dangerous viruses.
But don't panic and don't go running to your boss telling them to block Facebook inside your company's network. The same survey also reveals two other reasons much more common than social media as far as malware infections are concerned.
As most industry experts expect, 80 percent of all surveyed companies say that they've detected malware infiltrating their network via email. A similarly high number, of 72 percent, reveals that surfing the Web is as dangerous as opening emails.
These are common and well-known sources of malware infections, and before companies start turning their attention to stopping cyber-threats from penetrating their network via Facebook or Twitter, they should probably get those fixed first.
You can get your own copy of the Osterman Research Best Practices for Social Media Archiving and Security white paper here.
