Comments on: Will zombies be social media’s downfall in the Enterprise?

By: MadKat97

MadKat97 — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:24:51 +0000

The downfall of social media in most enterprises will be because most enterprises aren’t particularly “social.” Most enterprises are organized as hierarchical command and control structures, and social media, by its nature, threatens those who profit the most by this type of organization (think “incompetent managers” here.)

The second reason for the failure of social media in the enterprise is will be the lack of critical mass.

And the the third reason will be the self-censorship by individuals in the face of what is perceived as draconian and arbitrary punishment for not “going along” with the corporate message.

Finally, failure within the enterprise will actually be relative. Social media will still be used by small, self-selecting groups, but it won’t have major corporate sponsorship. No way to measure “ROI” in a way that a bean-counter can see the value.

By: The Zombie stories are real, and their masters are getting smarter | Adventures in Corporate Education

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:51:51 +0000

[...] Specifically how the implicit trust we have in social media tools is providing an opportunity for bad guys to turn your computer into a zombie that can be controlled to steal identities, personal information, or take down important [...]

By: PLNs in an Organisational Context « Mollybob Goes To School

PLNs in an Organisational Context « Mollybob Goes To School — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:38:08 +0000

[...] disagree with this for all the obvious reasons such as using social tools securely which is addressed well by Gink Minks and appropriately in terms of behaviour as addressed by Kate Carruthers, but I’d also like [...]

By: Mollybob

Mollybob — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:22:32 +0000

I think you’ve highlighted a serious concern here, and a real need for education. I have a friend in IT security at an airline that has banned all social media, and her rationale, although a little more exaggerated (I’d call some of it irrantionale) has some parallels with what you are talking about here.

I agree, this kind of thing could mess up a company more than a lack of agreed measurement.

By: Slow computer? Maybe you have a zombie infestation!

Slow computer? Maybe you have a zombie infestation! — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:12:46 +0000

[...] Minks has done the learning community a big service by writing a great article on the problem of zombies – programs that take over your computer and use it to send out spam and other nasty things to your [...]

By: gminks

gminks — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:21:29 +0000

From experience, I know people don’t think twice about clicking links, esp from people they know. I was friends with a QA guy during the Sasser virus. I was at his cube, explaining how the work worked. I told him – you may get an IM from one of your friends, so be careful about the links you click. As I am in his cube, telling him what a nightmare this worm had caused us (the sysadmins), he got an email from a friend about pictures the friend had taken at a party and clicked it. I remember it in slow motion: “nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo”

ah QA guys…….

By: David Spencer

David Spencer — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:39:55 +0000

Delayed gratification and common sense can combine to be a strong anti-phish technique.

Common sense tells you that if your mom or boss sends you a link that promises “check out this hot vid” maybe you should double-check if it’s real.

Delayed gratification tells you that you don’t have to be the first person to click something. Let some other guinea pig get compromised; save that link for 24 hours and see if your friends actually think it’s worth clicking.

It doesn’t hurt to make yourself as bulletproof as possible either. Browse with javascript and flash disabled, and enable them when needed, etc. There are addons out there for Firefox that make this much less of a chore than it used to be.