Corporate investment in social media is on the rise, but most organizations still do not understand the scope and scale of the risks, according to research.
Over the course of one year, Proofpoint Nexgate research team examined Fortune 100 social media pages—including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn—and identified how frequently regulated and sensitive information is exposed.
They found that the average Fortune 100 company had approximately 70 compliance issues on their branded social media pages. Of the average 70 violations, more than 50 were generated by public commenters and more than 10 were often generated by the brand itself. Financial Services firms accounted for the largest incident volume with more than 5,000 risks, more than 250 per firm.
According to Proofpoint, the average Fortune 100 firm has more than 320 branded social accounts, thousands of employees and hundreds of thousands of followers—all interacting in dynamic, large-scale social media discussions. “Compliance violations pose a particular threat as they have serious financial and regulatory consequences,” said Devin Redmond, vice president and general manager of Nexgate for Proofpoint.
In addition, only 47 percent of branded posts were routed through marketing and content publishing platforms despite the fact that most Fortune 100 brands own these tools. Proofpoint suggest this means that employees are either unaware, ignoring or deliberately circumventing approved publishing workflow.
Compliance incidents triggered nine different types of U.S. regulatory standards risks. The FTC, SEC, FCA, FFIEC, FINRA, FDA, ABA and others have updated existing regulations to include social media provisions.
The full report can be found here.
