Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

[Genz2]

Employee Social Media Use Viewed as Risky



https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/employee-social-media-use-viewed/

Small-business owners are worried that their employees' use of social media is a potential security risk, according to new research by the Cyber Readiness Institute.

A survey of 400 SMB owners and 1,059 US workers found that 56% of owners believe that their employees’ social media use poses a cybersecurity threat to their business.

Despite their fears, 82% of employers said that they allow employees to use personal devices to access work email or other data and 67% of business owners allow their employees to use social media applications on work devices.

While 56% of employees said that they have social media applications on devices they use for work, only 30% had been issued with guidelines on the use of social media applications on those devices.

Almost a quarter—22%—of workers admitted to ignoring or bypassing the cybersecurity guidelines issued by their company on a daily or weekly basis.

“It is clear that small-business owners are fully aware of the cybersecurity risks associated with mixing personal and work activities on the same device,” said Kiersten Todt, managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute.

“SMBs now need to issue policies that address these risks. More than 4-in-5 owners allow employees to use personal devices for work and only about half have policies regarding the apps that can or cannot be on devices used. It is a recipe for cyber insecurity."

Installing social media apps on work devices was common among employees, with 42% of business owners saying that more than 75% of their employees have social media applications on devices they use for work.

Facebook was the most popular app used by workers on their work device, with 50% of those surveyed saying that they used it.

More than half of employees—56%—said that their company has not issued new guidelines on the use of social media apps on work devices since the COVID-19 pandemic had triggered the introduction of remote working.

Adding new policies regarding social media apps or modifying existing policies for employees having to work at home to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus was being considered by 36% of employers.
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Given this article, it's really amazing that Scrambls is not being used or put back into use!!!
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https://www.wavesys.com/buzz/pr/protect-corporate-use-social-media-and-cloud-services-scrambls-enterprise

Protect Corporate Use of Social Media and Cloud Services with Scrambls for Enterprise

Encrypt Postings and Shared Files to Ensure Privacy and Compliance

Lee, MA -

December 4, 2012 -

Scrambls for Enterprise launched today, giving organizations a means for their employees to safely collaborate over social media sites like Twitter® and Facebook, and share files with cloud services like Dropbox™ and Salesforce.com®. Scrambls protects data that is often overlooked in corporate security initiatives – information shared online via social media, files stored in the cloud and data in motion.

Employees are free to leverage existing social media infrastructures to enter status updates, Tweets, blog posts, files and more, without jeopardizing security or privacy. Scrambls for Enterprise encrypts data before it ever leaves a user’s computer or smartphone. Posts and files can only be viewed by those the enterprise grants permission to—everyone else sees scrambled text.

“Social media and cloud services are expanding the way business is done, but enterprises need greater control of the information they share across the public web,” commented Steven Sprague, scrambls co-creator and CEO of Wave Systems. “These services are often self-discovered by employees who use them to share critical information. Enterprises need to take responsibility for this new flow of data, and scrambls provides the privacy, security and audit controls similar to what you’d see with corporate email accounts.”

The power of scrambls lies in the permissions granted to group members. To read a post or descramble a file, the service automatically applies the permission to make it readable again for only those individuals granted access. Business administrators set the policy and manage the groups. Add or remove people from the groups at any time to change who can read messages and files, even after they’ve been published on the web.

“Scrambls can open up new business opportunities with use cases for every type of vertical market,” continued Sprague. “In healthcare, a private and protected channel for communication leads to better care and service. It’s easy for doctors, social workers and caregivers to have sensitive discussions about the care of a family member in real time using popular tools like Twitter or Facebook. Those conversations remain private with scrambls.”

Deploying scrambls in the Enterprise

The scrambls enterprise console gives employees, managers and IT staff the ability to manage accounts. You first create groups for access either by email addresses or through the existing corporate lists that enterprises already use (Active Directory, corporate email domains, etc.). Add more detailed rules as needed, like an expiration date for a file, or a password that can be used to view a blog post. Deploy the client install or have users download it, and they’re ready to scramble. It’s as simple as that!

Scrambls privacy and security can be added to an organization’s internal applications as well through a software developer kit. The SDK enables third-party apps and sites to integrate directly with scrambls to leverage the same groups for security, privacy and control.