EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Many of society’s most highly paid wage earners net peanuts when compared to sophisticated cyber criminals, according to Computer Weekly. Pros at the art of cyber crime siphon off as much as $2m per year, while mid-level cyber criminals tend to leach around $900,000 annually.

One of the critical avenues for pilfering profits includes –to the surprise of many- social media platforms. Apps, advertisements and links embedded within the platforms can be corrupt, deploying malware, cryptomining software, hives of botnets, and other types of computer infections.

“Facebook Messenger has been instrumental in spreading cryptocurrency mining strains like Digmine,” explains criminology expert, Mike McGuire.

Businesses have already taken a big hit, with one in five reportedly having experienced a network infection due to social media. Computer Weekly points out that “…most corporate employees access social media sites at work,” leaving organizations flagrantly exposed.

Once a hacker has wormed through to an organization’s network, the hacker can scour the network for sensitive information and high value assets.

Cleaning up voluminous infections can be a lengthy process that demands substantial reallocation of financial and human resources.

Outlawing social media at work is likely to reduce revenue streams (as many groups lean on social media for marketing purposes) and to dampen employee morale. A more favorable solution is to implement a segmented approach that can “wrap critical applications within hardware-enforced virtual cages,” preventing compromised data from filtering into the larger system.

Get the full story at Computer Weekly.