How social networking could jeopardise your reputation

The development of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn are great for networking and communicating with friends, allowing individuals with common interests to come together and network with each other over the internet.

Over the years these sites have dramatically grown in popularity, with people openly sharing information about themselves, sometimes with little consideration being given as to the possible consequences of that information being available on the internet. Your employees may not be aware that when using these sites in both the home or work environment, they could potentially be putting both their personal information and company information at risk.  Without proper consideration and caution being taken they could potentially cause a risk not only to their own reputation but to the company’s reputation as well.

SimplEtraining can show you how putting a security awareness program in place within your company could help to considerably reduce this risk.  We will show you how to practice safe social networking in the interest of helping you to keep your information protected.

Below are some key tips to help ensure your data is kept safe. To learn more about our security awareness program please contact us today for more information.

Avoid posting sensitive information

This is probably the most important point to be made.  Your employees should be aware that once they have openly posted information on the internet via a social networking site, it is there for all to see. Once posted, it can then be extremely difficult to have it removed from all the sources that have seen it or connected to it.  When using a social networking site, your employees should always assume that anyone connecting to the internet could view or be forwarded any of the information posted, regardless of the privacy settings that they themselves have put in place.

Sensitive information includes, but is not limited to, personal data such as a date of birth, addresses, financial information, photographs, company plans, documents or confidential information. Employees should also be aware however that communications, general comments, thoughts and opinions expressed via social media could also be an issue if they relate to their job or work environment and can be seen in a negative light. If they want to avoid the possibility of sensitive information posted being openly available to anyone online, then it’s better not to post it all.   

Understand the privacy settings; they are there for a reason

It’s very easy to set up an online account and just accept the terms and conditions without thoroughly reading what you are signing up to. By skipping over this information you may without realising it, be agreeing for a social networking site to sell your personal information to other parties such as spamming companies without any further consent being required.

The level of privacy settings available to you can also vary from site to site, with some actively encouraging you to share and encourage the disclosure of information, whereas others may provide you with some level of anonymity. Even if privacy settings are available they are commonly not automatically included in the default account settings and require you to set them up yourself.  

Ensure your employees are aware of the pitfalls and remain safe and secure when networking online – contact us to find out more about our security awareness program.