New awareness module: Safer surfin

Fascinating sociological changes are happening all around us as the Internet continues to expand and morph.

Social media, online reviews and customer feedback sites are shifting the balance of power from retailers and other corporations towards their customers, in ways that aren’t entirely beneficial: pressure groups comprising aggrieved customers and others with axes to grind (perhaps including unethical competitors) have the ability to collaborate and express themselves very publicly and often bitterly through online campaigns, while corporations suffering the full glare of the social media spotlight struggle to respond without harming their own brands. 

This issue neatly demonstrates the distinction between information security and IT or cybersecurity: the power of information is key, whereas information technology is (one could argue) merely a tool. No amount of technical security can address the challenges we've just described.

The brand new awareness module for May also touches on covert monitoring and subversion of the Internet by secretive government agencies – another issue that transcends the technology. 

"Safer surfin'" is the 54th awareness topic in our portfolio, albeit something that we have touched upon in several other modules.  Our hope, as always, is that the materials will intrigue and fire up employees’ imaginations, prompting them to think and chat about Internet security at coffee time …. result!