COLUMNS

Why Understanding Is Key to Thwarting Social Media Threats

Scott Stewart

VP of Tactical Analysis, Stratfor

Oct 2, 2018 | 09:05 GMT

A photomontage shows a businessman against a backdrop depicting the digital age. The emergence of social media has created more threats to individuals and organizations. In the age of social media, protecting oneself or one's organization requires a total understanding of how such platforms can be used for attack.

(DEAN DROBOT/MAKSIM KABAKOU/Shutterstock)

Highlights

Like any other technology, social media is neutral, meaning it can be used for good or bad purposes.
Social media monitoring tools are helpful in combing through mountains of data on social media feeds for items of interest, but human judgment and understanding are essential to provide context for the data.
Because social media will only become more pervasive, those wishing to protect their organizations from attack on social media, or wishing to monitor it for signs of danger, must become familiar with how its various applications work.

How times change. Thirty years ago, the task of recruiting someone for intelligence purposes involved a lot of legwork and a lot of vulnerability for the operative. Now the process is a whole lot simpler thanks to the internet and, more importantly, the ubiquity of social media. These two topics -- intelligence and social media -- were front and center last week at the ASIS Global Security Exchange in Las Vegas, where I had the honor of participating in a panel discussion on how social media is affecting threat intelligence. In an age when social media is so pervasive, protecting oneself or one's organization requires a total understanding of how such platforms can be used for attack. Only then is it possible to mount a defense....

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