Darkreading recently reported that LinkedIn confessed that “We don’t have a reliable system for identifying and counting duplicate or fraudulent accounts” and that “cyber criminals now weaponize social media sites and their data, leading to some of the biggest data breaches over the last few years.” The September 6, 2016 article entitled “Why Social Media Sites Are The New Cyber Weapons Of Choice” included these observations that “consumers implicitly trust people’s activity on social media” which is a treasure trove for cyber criminals:

The attackers now have incredibly broad reach and can easily manipulate users and execute a variety of widespread cyber attacks and scams, including everything from social engineering to exploit distribution to counterfeit sales to brand impersonations, account takeovers, customer fraud, and much more.

And the article goes on to make this recommendation:

Both security professionals and marketers alike should start treating social channels like the dangerous security threat they truly are, and align strategies to effectively fend against the range of cyber techniques currently in use.

Good advice, but it will likely go unheeded given the massive scope of social media.

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