Think Twice in Social Media:

Think twice when interacting on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, or LinkedIn.  The vulnerabilities that we normally worry about in e-mail and Internet browsing are exponentially more likely to occur when using social media.  Because of the “public presence” of social media, we are much more accessible to hackers and scammers than we are in our cozy offices and homes, behind firewalls and a degree of privacy.

When we use social media, we must always remember that the entire world will see what we type into our computer. Thus we must be doubly diligent. We should proof our work and then proof it again before clicking on that post button. Not only do we need to check spelling and grammar, but we should also think, “what will this mean two years from now.”

All the controls we normally use . . . passwords, logging out, verification . . . are doubly important in social media.  Authenticating those we think we know is twice as important, and we should think twice about responding to requests to download files or install third party applications. Clicking on links sent to us in social media . . . even from those we know . . . should happen only after slowing down and fully exploring the link. As with regular e-mail or internet browsing, before we invest in an investigation, we should decide whether the request is really worth the time. Do we really need to map where we have traveled our entire life? What value does that offer?

Click here for more information about User Awareness Training.

Intended Use:

The purpose of Vigilize is to respond to ISO’s complaints that users never read ISO’s “ongoing security awareness training reminders.”  Our tweets are designed to be copied into the subject line of your awareness reminder, with the language on these pages put into the body.  The goal is that the user will have to read the subject line to know to delete the message, and if they understand the subject line the reminder is communicated.  If not, they will go into the message and read the reminder.

Feel free to use Vigilize in your own Security Awareness Program.  Let us know if you have any ideas, suggested tweets, or ways to improve this FREE service.