Social media is a communication mechanism that has emerged in our society in the last decade and has quickly become the most unique and disruptive ways that the human race communicates today. It’s really changed the way we find like-minded people with similar skill sets and beliefs. The timeframe in which the coordination of people can occur has shrunk dramatically in the last decade and is bringing people together in ways we could not have contemplated 100 years ago.
Social media has made information available that can be used to build proactive engagement approaches for business that help to potentially reduce cyber risk through active community engagement. This creates unique opportunities in the way organizations look at standing up cyber defense/offense mechanisms. Recognizing the importance of social media influence, predictive methodologies can be established that increase engagement and awareness posture of an organization and its ability to be proactive versus reactive in dealing with threats.
The Power of Social Media
A example of the power and influence of social media occurred in 2011 in the Middle East. Social media played a significant role in the overthrow of dictatorial regimes. Cyber space and social media became a haven for people to organize in both positive and negative ways. What we virtually witnessed was individuals starting to connect and organize around interests that were unique to their specific geographic and political climates. The governments in question were restrictive in their approach to open communication and pushed back against the organized groups. They resisted versus embraced the communication and each approach has a very different impact against the threat.
This scenario easily translates to the business world and businesses can learn from the Middle East experience. People begin to organize around interests and have near-instantaneous access to relevant information. Couple that with the ability to participate directly in the conversation, as well as shaping that conversation, and immediate action can start to take place all within the cyber space. We saw it with flash mobs and other types of activities where people organized in negative ways. When the conversations grow, the conversations become more complex. It becomes more difficult to gain understanding of what’s happening or in most cases what has already happened and its impact. It is not a matter if it will impact your organization it is when.
We know this scenario is already occurring. We either embrace this reality and become part of the conversation or resist it and suffer the consequences. Businesses and governments that are proactive in engaging their community become a part of it and can actually shape the conversation through value. This adds important proactive elements to an overall defensive cyber posture. Most organizations do not join the two initiatives of cyber defense and customer social engagement but by unifying the two, proactive measurements can be added.
Going back to the Middle East situation in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen, revolutionaries used Twitter and other social media tools to disseminate information in near real time to inform the world of the situation at hand and mobilize the populace involved in the conversation. As that conversation became louder and more complex, active listeners with interest, became part of that. Active listeners with different motives also became part of that conversation and began to evolve and shape that outcome.
Cyber tools were most effective in wired countries like Tunisia and Egypt. The effect in Yemen was diminished because of the lack of communication channels there. The prevailing reality is that by flipping the switch to wireless access, countries can instantaneously come up online. Scenarios where civil unrest or idea generation to the populace can take minutes or hours versus years are here.
An Offensive Cyber Posture
The concept of making our best cyber defense a cyber offense involves coming up with unique ways to engage in the conversation. The goal is to inform through transparency, education, and create understanding around a product, service, idea, or legislation so that it can be injected in that communication stream.
Why is this important? For businesses, the number one priority is their customers. The customers who are engaged and interested in what we’re doing shape the perception of the market place. The most advantageous way to engage with someone is to communicate with them, to share information, and to have a two-way conversation. By using this approach in social media, you can better create that environment. By engaging and monitoring you can build security through a proactive approach. From this approach a model can be established based on needs versus being reactive to the world around you.
How much would this approach be worth to an organization? How much of a cost savings and efficiency yield would proactivity versus reactivity have over time? How many more customers would that allow me to get? By creating a culture of understanding through cyber offense, not defense, and cyber analytics, you can turn your cyber defense program into a revenue producing effort. We’re not advocating for banning defensive measures as they’re absolutely necessary. They’re necessary in the collection process to get an understanding of how you can engage better with your customers.
Getting Proactive with Cyber Analytics
The first step for your organization in getting proactive with your cyber analytics is to thoughtfully consider the intersection between cyber defense and engagement. Once you accept the correlation between the two, then you can begin to build the processes necessary to create a program and ultimately measure its effectiveness. If you feel after the discovery that the problem is large enough to solve, then it’s worth pursuing.
After you complete the discovery, the next step is to implement the cyber engagement program. This starts by defining your criteria for success and the metrics for measuring performance. So essentially you must first create a set of strategic goals, then a set of strategic metrics that correlate to those that involve both your social engagement strategy and cyber defensive posture. The important aspect here is that you are making the correlation that you want to connect the dots between your engagement with you customers and your threats to your cyber security.
After you complete that discovery, the next step is to implement your cyber analytics platform and solutions to begin the program initiative. You want to ensure that your organization understands how the data you’re collecting is impacting the business. If you’re able to collect that information based on a solid understanding of the problems you want to solve, that will help you implement both defensive and offensive measures and understand how to better engage with their customers through the intersection of social media engagement and cyber defensive measures. Ultimately the goal is to come up with solutions that help those businesses make smarter business decisions and move their products and platforms forward in the marketplace as well as have, ultimately, customers that have a clear understanding of the products and solutions they’re bringing to market.
Developing cyber defensive measures is no longer just about being defensive; it’s about utilizing defense as a last resort. Engaging with your customer base, understanding them and listening to their needs are the primary reasons you are in business in the first place. Doing that well grows your business and it’s your best form of cyber protection as well.
