Social media is playing an increasingly important role in an enterprise’s marketing strategy – and for good reason. Social media can help build brand awareness, provide a new level of customer support, and launch new products quicker than ever before.
However, social media also poses a costly security risk. As hackers become more sophisticated, they are becoming adept at stealing social media credentials and taking over accounts, as witnessed by hacks of several large corporations over the last year. Account takeovers can lead to the unauthorized publishing of confidential information, such as intellectual property, legal, regulatory, and compliance violations, disclosure of personal data, and identity theft. The result can be severely compromised brand reputations and significant financial loss.
With more frequent attacks of this nature, it’s time for organizations to take a closer look at how they manage their social media accounts. And it’s imperative that they take measures to prevent hackers – as well as disgruntled employees or associates – from hijacking accounts and posting damaging content.
