Thursday, August 13, 2009

With rising hackers attacking businesses through social media, it's time to update company policy on employee use of company computers


If your bar or restaurant is starting to use social media, it's time to consider updating an employee policy concerning the use of Twitter and other social media outlets.

After focusing on email as a way to spread malware and viruses, hackers are now targeting social media outlets as their new distribution model.

In a recent blog in the San Antonio Express-News, Matt Scherer suggested that businesses should follow these guidelines:

1) Does your firm or business have a policy on the use of social media? For example, a corporate handbook could inform workers that if they accept a link from a follower named Xge333x to look at his or her pictures that they could be terminated if clinking that link spreads a virus or malware into the system.

2) Does a business have an outside channel of computers, not linked into their main business processing centers, for social media use? At one local Air Force base, the public affairs officer has a computer not linked into the base's main computer system where he can post blogs and follow Twitter.

3) Is the company's social media policy briefed to workers on a semi-annual basis or through the use of other corporate channels such as the company newsletter?

Restaurants should update their employee handbook to address this, especially for those managers and marketing professionals that use a company computer to post tweets on Twitter and messages on Facebook.

1 comment:

  1. Wow I don't know what the guy above me said. I do know that you are spot on. We need to amend the rules. Keeping business in house should be mandatory. We saw this year had NFL players and other leagues' players fined for speaking out against the people paying them millions!!! Unbelievable. Anyway great insite. Thanks.

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