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Lawyers Weekly article the latest in Chicken Little

January 22, 2008

Law firms ought to be scared to death of the dangers presented by employees using social network sites and personal blogs. So says Kevin Lo, an e-discovery expert, in an article in LexisNexis’ Lawyers Weekly.

Lo raises a couple salient points, but by and large his sensationalist headlines about the dangers of blogs and the like is an attempt to create a widely read story about a perceived sexy topic.

What does Lo tell readers?

  • Leads off with a pornography company hacking FaceBook to steal identities.
  • FaceBook is a virtual cornucopia of personal information about more than eight million Canadians that must make fraudsters and corporate spies drool with delight.
  • Hackers and spies use personal and corporate information, obtained by various methods of subterfuge, to infiltrate a company. Once inside, they can do untold damage, including stealing corporate secrets, sabotaging (and possibly holding for ransom) the company’s information technology network, or perpetrating numerous types of fraudulent activities.

And by the way, Lo reports that during a 16-month period there’s only been 88 personal records reported stolen from corporations in the U.S. That’s probably less than the number of legal files accidently left at court houses and airports.

Lo advises (with my commentary), among other things:

  • Creating a social media policy for use outside the office. (maybe law firms should monitor home computer use?)
  • Prohibit using the company name in personal profiles and electronic correspondence. (that should put an end to all networking)
  • Encourage employees to be careful about what information they post and who they accept as ‘friends.’ (Hope Mom told us that)
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