Officer Social Media Working the Beat

According to Bank Technology News, "when Westpac was recently targeted by web crooks, the Australian bank used another online venue to warn consumers, sending a Tweet warning consumers of the crime. The alert was part of a new trend—using social media to publicly expose online fraud attacks in real time—that Anti-Phishing Workgroup Chairman Dave Jevans says can be an effective way to spread security warnings, if it’s done right."  Westpac tweeted an alert warning of a fake email that claimed to advise customers to download a new security program. The email instead carried a Trojan download. Twitter can warn customers instantaneously, without sending emails that could be construed as a malicious phishing attempt.

Social media has been primarily used by banks as an informational and customer service venue.  Using social media to warn about malware attacks is a new and powerful use, but is also a strategy that requires banks to be aware of how the Twitter, Facebook and other sites can be used by crooks themselves.