June Event Recap: Social Media Security
By Amy Lakhani
Christopher Burgess‘s presentation at SMC Seattle’s June event wasn’t just a wake-up call. It was a grab-and-shake-you-silly, ring-all-the-alarm-bells, freak-you-out-in-a-good-way kind of wake-up call.
The Senior Security Officer at Cisco Systems shared his cautionary tales and pointed advice about social media and internet security to a sold-out crowd at 415Westlake as they listened, tweeted, and raised their hands in response to his engaging questions throughout the night.
Among his questions:
- “How many of you get up in the morning, don’t leave the bed, and check Twitter?” (Tons of hands went up for this one.)
- “How many of you have a Code of Business Conduct where you work?” (Fewer hands went up for this one.)
- “How many of you tag your childrens’ pictures with their name [online]?” (Burgess’s advice: Don’t do it. Ever.)
After he highlighted the tremendous growth of social media via some striking statistics (e.g., “91% of all consumer internet traffic will be video in 2013″), Burgess stressed that our increasingly interconnected world demands a smart, common sense approach from each of us.
We own our words, which means we must also be aware of the permanent imprint they make.
“Once it is on the net, it is there forever,” Burgess cautioned. “There are no do-overs.”
As individuals and company representatives, we need to implement strategies and structures around our social media efforts, or be open to the troubling consequences that could follow, which include: identity theft, intellectual property violations, stalking, and physical harm.
Proving that he that he is walking the talk, Burgess provided the crowd with a link to Cisco’s social media handbook. These dangers are not just urban legends, said Burgess, as he recalled the story of a man who, after tweeting about his upcoming 10-day cruise, came back to an empty house.
Whenever you broadcast anything online, you should “talk about where you’ve been, not where you’re going.”
As for other “tweetable moments”, Burgess offered the following nuggets, ranging from fascinating to frightening to funny:
- In 2010, there are five connected devices per person. In 2013, that number will jump to 140.
- “At this time, our youth entering into university have never had a day without the Internet.”
- “No longer are you Mr. Anonymous. You are responsible for what you say.”
- “Facebook wasn’t set up for HIPAA.”
- “In Twitter, every time you send out a tweet, it’s going to the Library of Congress.”
- “Crime is a business, and criminals have time.”
- “Make sure that when you put your information out there about you, your company, or your family, you put it in a way that doesn’t allow it to be aggregated and mapped.”
- “‘Well, I use Italian passwords, so they’ll never know.’” (Referring to naiveté when choosing usernames and passwords, his advice is to register with completely different names on different sites. The best usernames and passwords are gender neutral, age neutral, and location neutral.)
- “Social media does not mean pack it in and lose your moral compass…It starts with you.”
- “The negative goes viral.”
From my back row view, Burgess’s presentation felt like an impassioned and animated plea to think more seriously about our own online privacy and safety, and then act on it. Today.
Which reminds me… I’d better go do some password-smithing.
p.s. Let’s keep the conversation rolling! What questions did Christopher Burgess leave you with? Add a comment below or on Twitter: @burgessct & @SMCSeattle
p.p.s. Congratulations to Shauna Causey, SMC Seattle’s new VP!
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These are some great points regarding security. I really wish that more young people would read this article and realize what the implications of their actions online really are.
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