Mobile & Social: The Tipping Point For Cybercrime

Social media are fantastic. They continue to piece together the fabric of our lives, personally and professionally. Not only can you connect and socialize with friends new and old, but you can also network with colleagues about the latest in your field from around the globe at the speed of thought. It really is up to you to control how you interact with, consume, and share content.

The number of users flocking to platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn is exploding. Social media continue to permeate all demographics and all countries across the globe. With a population of hundreds of millions for each given platform, social media have become quintessential in how we live and carry out our daily lives.

[ Claims Departments Focused on Customer Retention: Survey. ]

Cybercriminals and threat actors will always shift focus to platforms of interest and capitalize on the popularity of an ecosystem. They do this to hunt easy prey and to carry out their elaborate and sophisticated business models. Even more so, they have come to realize that many consumers are accessing these platforms from unprotected devices. This would include mobile devices and PCs not equipped with standard anti-malware and web/domain reputation services, as well as packages that take direct aim at protecting user security and privacy within the social media realms.

We have fundamentally reached a tipping point in the amount of online services we access via our mobile devices versus traditional PCs and desktops. This has created new challenges as we look to consume and browse safely among these social media services.

I have conducted informal surveys at nearly every speaking event in which I have participated. In most cases, not even 25% of the respondents indicate they have some form of security software on their mobile device. This question is usually raised after the question of how many use their mobile device more to access the Internet than a PC. Most people in the room raise their hand after that inquiry.

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