Social media hold promise, peril for companies

If you think gathering connections on LinkedIn is harmless, think again.

Say you're an executive whose connections consist mostly of clients.

If a client or colleague recommends someone and you accept them into your network, you could unintentionally grant a competitor access to an unofficial client list, said Terry Gudaitis, vice president of cyber intelligence with the Arlington firm Cyveillance Inc.

"I don't think people are thinking about that," Gudaitis said. "They're thinking, 'Oh great, I have a large network.' It can be turned around and used against you.

"I can get a lot of information from the type of networking a competitor has."

Social networking offers vast opportunities to reach new customers, attract attention and market your business, but experts say it also poses hazards to companies.

Those pitfalls go beyond a loss of productivity from employees goofing off online. Excessive use could limit a firm's bandwidth, which will slow down Internet speed for employees, customers and other users.

And blogging, posting Tweets, downloading applications on Facebook or other online activities can open a company up to lawsuits, the unintentional sharing of confidential information, impersonation, hacking, spyware, viruses and other problems, Gudaitis said.

So what's a company to do?

RichTech, formerly the Greater Richmond Technology Council, is hosting a summit this month about social networking. It's not about learning how to set up a Facebook account or a Twitter page. It's more about the hazards on the virtual terrain.

"We know the 'why we shoulds,' but what we're not really sure of is the 'why we shouldn'ts,'" said Chip Farmer, RichTech's executive director. "What are the things you have to look out for? Tell us how to manage it."

As CEO of the Richmond-based Internet marketing firm AdLinea LLC, Doug Lucy is all about social networking, but with guidelines.

Employers need to decide how firm or relaxed their plans will be, he said.

They could set specific times of day or an amount of time (much like a smoking break) when social networking is allowed.

Employees should be using their personal e-mail accounts so that business and pleasure don't mix.

And if an employee is charged with crafting an online persona for a company or product, make sure that person is aware of the goals and standards associated with their content, Lucy said.

"It's very important to have a strategy to get new business without risking some business because of a risqué personal profile," Lucy said.

Users also should be wary of applications that ask permission to go into your friends' list or photos on Facebook or other sites, he said. By clicking "yes" to join such Facebook games as Mafia Wars or FarmVille, you could be granting the programmer of that game access to your personal info.

And then some invitation could come from you to a business colleague not interested in gaming online.

"Using an account may mean you're sending out messages to businesspeople and could hurt relationships," Lucy said.

Some other hazards to be aware of:

• Lawsuits: A classic case study is an executive who was going through a divorce and blogging about why he didn't like women. When women in his department didn't get raises or promotions, they used the blog in a lawsuit, Gudaitis said.

Off-the-cuff remarks also could lead to defamation claims or hurt client relations. Informal chitchat can spread fast and cause problems.

"Assume whatever you do is public or could easily become public," said Chris Gatewood, an associate attorney with the Richmond-based law firm Hirschler Fleischer.

• Sharing confidential information: Employees talking about their workday may be sharing sensitive information without realizing it.

"I think social-networking policies are very important to have in place, just like you have company policies or human-resources policies," said Gatewood, whose firm is working on a policy and training for employees.

And if it's a public company, some information may unintentionally be released during a no-comment period.

"There's always been potential to say the wrong thing or disclose things you shouldn't," he said. "Officers shouldn't say some things unless it's been vetted through investor relations."

Such personal info as home addresses, vacation plans (indicating a home is empty) and cell-phone numbers also can come out.

"A lot of personal data may come from six degrees of separation," Gudaitis said. "It may come from a friend of a friend of a friend. It could make a high-profile person vulnerable."

• Social-network squatting: When someone poses as another person under a screen name or user name, this is considered squatting. If a squatter gets a following under another's name, others may believe the Twitter feed or blog is legitimate when it isn't. "It can be difficult, if not dangerous to the company," Gudaitis said.

• Phishers: Fraudsters also can set up false pages and send fake e-mails to get information out of users. During the first half of this year, more than 23,000 unique phishing attacks happened each month, according to Cyveillance.

In many cases, it can be financial data such as bank PINs and credit-card account info.

• Hackers: Beware malware, which is any type of software application that is used to infiltrate computers, usually by stealthy means. Malware can track keystrokes, download sensitive information, redirect users to fake Web sites, collect and analyze information, and allow unauthorized access to a computer system.

• Loss of bandwidth: Bandwidth is the network's capacity to get to the Internet. It's like the pipe connecting your network to the outside world. The larger the bandwidth, the faster the connection. The big eaters of bandwidth: photos and videos.

"They are really hogging that pipeline," said Jennifer Whitlock, co-owner of The Help Desk Co. in Richmond. "They're slowing it down."

Companies can use firewalls to limit where employees can surf and track what Web sites are visited. The firewalls are programs that act as a door between your server and Internet and can cost between $250 and well into the thousands of dollars. Other programs can control how much bandwidth a person can use, Whitlock said.

To sum it up Twitter-style: Be careful where you go and what you do and say.

"It's the wild Wild West all over again," Farmer said.

Contact Emily C. Dooley at (804) 649-6016 or .