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Tips to Avoid Confidentiality Issues When Using Social Networking Media

Social media sites have gained popularity in the past ten years as a medium to keep in contact with loved ones, business associates and friends. However, there can be drawbacks to the usage of said media when one is employed in certain career fields, such as the healthcare industry. Utilizing social media networks can inadvertently give way to the sharing of confidential patient information with people that may not have a need to know which would then cause the company to violate HIPAA Security Rule compliance.

Social media applications are not just a part of one’s personal lifestyle; this has also become incorporated in the corporate climate. Many places use these applications for marketing, file sharing, communication, and employee recruitment. While these applications can open up a great many doors of communication, some type of guidance or governance is necessary. Because banning the use of such sites is most likely unenforceable or impractical, a hospital or other such entity that must shield private information should at least ask or force their employees to adhere to some Social Media Policy guidelines.

For instance, when utilizing social networking sites, one should use separate passwords for the different sites, as an individual can easily hack all of one’s accounts if they know the one password. A security breach of one account could snowball. Passwords should be complex and change every 90 days. Accessing social media sites should be over SSL and only from trusted network connections, not coffee shops especially for business purposes!

In the case of company documents or patient information, if it isn’t found on the company’s web page it probably should not be posted elsewhere. There are sites that exude a feeling of privacy and security, but are far from it. Allowing one’s corporate information security team to determine what sites are acceptable is the best option.

Another thing one should not do is post his or her own identifying information publicly, such as date of birth, his or her social security number, or an employee ID number. If a site requires this information, 1) it is most likely not a reputable site, and/or 2) one could make something up or ensure that it is not going to be displayed in a profile that will be public.

Some information may not be considered confidential; yet not posting these items to public social media sites is probably a good idea. This can include anything from rumors, to purchases the company plans on making, anything about the technology one’s company uses or will use, and any projects the individual may be working on.

So in one’s personal endeavors, it is most beneficial to all involved if confidential information, or information that could be considered secret, stays out of the hands of the public. Follow practical posting guidelines and do not share more information than is necessary in corporate social media activities.

Gary Bahadur

CEO KRAA Security, baha@kraasecurity.com

http://www.kraasecurity.com

http://blog.kraasecurity.com

http://twitter.com/kraasecurity

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TJX Hacking Conspirator Gets 4 Years
sentenced Thursday in Boston to 46 months in prison and fined $75,000
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Can you protect yourself on Social Media?

One of the greatest challenges to privacy and security in the next several years is Social Networks and Social Media. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and others can be the downfall of valuing information. The ability to share and provide information is completely the opposite of network security requirements. This is really encouraging people to do things that are not security conscious activities. Social media encourages:

• Lack of privacy
• Encouraging information sharing
• Giving away answers to security questions
• Social engineering

As we have seen recently, a lot of spam, spyware and malware is attacking social network. Just in the past week I have probably gotten a 100 requests to be my friend on Facebook from people who i do not know and funny enough, all the message have the exact same personal message. Malicious people are attracted to social networks because of the ease of gaining trust and availability of data for social engineering. Relationship building is easier through social media which can easily lead to phishing attacks.

With these sites, people install applications without knowing what goes on in the background, and its easy to download malicious code to your computer. There are no external third party audits of these applications before the make it to your Facebook application. Your computer can be easily infected by a virus or spyware.

What does the Social Media user to to protect their information?
No Personal information - This is anti-social network, but there are things you can limit about what you post. Don't post your Birthday! Or your address, or your mothers middle name or any really personal data.

Limit who can view and contact you - Don't let your profile be truly public, restrict to people you know for requested users. Remember you can't retract information you put out there.

Dont trust strangers - Your mother was right, don't open the door to strangers. Limit who you accept chat or friend requests from and well as even communicate with.

Trust no one - People lie, its sad but true. So profiles lie, they might say they went to your college or high school. They might be interested in your groups, so dont take anyone at their word.

Restrict your privacy - There are a some configuratin setting in all the social media applications that can allow you to turn on some restrictions on your privcay. Take a minute to actually look at them. One easy example is in Facebook you can creat groups that you can place friend in, you don't want business people seeing what your friends are posting.

Password management - An oldie but a goodie, always use a strong password and don't share it. And change it periodically.

Layers of protection - You should be running a personal firewall and antivirus software on the machine you are viewing social networks. This will help if a malicious piece of software tries to download something to your machine. Keep your protection software up to date as well and run the patch management software on your machine, this is especially important for you Windows users.

Child protection software - You should have some kind of child protection software running on machines where children under 13 are using. This will help with all that shady software that is out there.

Gary Bahadur

http://www.kraasecurity.com/

http://blog.kraasecurity.com/

http://twitter.com/kraasecurity

Address: 200 Se 1st St #601 Miami FL 33131

*Managed Security Services

*Vulnerability Management

*Compliance & Policy Development

*PGP Security

*FREE Website Security Test

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