Liability and “Likes”: Teaching Your Employees Safe Social Media Practices

According to Hackmageddon, cyber-crime is the leading cause of cyber-attacks. In fact, roughly 30 percent of all attacks target businesses. For this reason, businesses are encouraged to teach their employees safe internet usage practices. Below explains five ways that will keep your employees safe on social media sites.

Information Sharing

Social media sites encourage the sharing of personal information. However, certain information should be kept private, otherwise employees could become victims of identity theft. Instruct employees to avoid posting their birth date and home address and phone number. In fact, teach employees to think twice before publishing their social plans or work schedules. Posted emails are easy targets for hackers to send spam or phishing attacks. Finally, set the expectation that employees will refrain from sharing work related information about co-workers, clients and the company online.

Privacy Options

While social media sites openly encourage users to share all sorts of personal information, they also offer customized privacy settings. In fact, concerns over privacy and identify theft have motivated major sites, such as Facebook, to offer flexible privacy configuration settings. These options allow users to control who sees their content and who can contact or search for them. Additionally, there are customized options that allow users to create unique privacy levels for individuals.

Communicate with Others

While users can adjust their own privacy settings, they cannot control how others share their pictures or information. This is especially true because certain people are more extroverted and enjoy sharing personal information, regardless of it is their own or others. Set the expectations that employees should talk to online friends when they are uncomfortable about the shared pictures and information. Teach employees to be sensitive and respect each others needs.

Formal Training

One of the most comprehensive ways to increase cyber security is through formal education. Having a third party provide onsite security awareness training will deliver excellent results and ensure that employees are properly educated on key issues, such as phishing attacks and social engineering. On-site training will ensure that all employees receive standard, vital security awareness training. Learn more about what a typical security awareness program consists of from Global Learning Systems.

In summation, employees should be taught to limit the personal information they share and adjust their privacy settings. It is also important for employees to communicate with each other if they are uncomfortable with posted information. Most importantly, consider providing formal social media security awareness training to employees.