In late January of 2014, a series of social media accounts for CNN were hacked. “Some of the posts claimed that the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of pro-Syrian regime hackers that has aggressively targeted major news organizations and activists, was responsible” (CNN, 2014). In all, 9 accounts were hacked that included “CNN’s main Facebook account, CNN Politics’ Facebook account and the Twitter pages for CNN and CNN’s Security Clearance. Blogs for Political Ticker, The Lead, Security Clearance, The Situation Room and Crossfire were also hacked” (CNN, 2014). Luckily for CNN, this breach had a minimal effect on their reputation or in any other capacity. The minimal effect was due in large part to CNN’s ability to quickly identify and respond to the security breach. Within 24 hours CNN recognized what had happened, quickly deleted the posts, secured the accounts, and then reported on what had happened. In regards to crisis management, “…the response typically includes such steps as gathering facts, reporting facts quickly (even if the fact is that nothing is known), give the name of a spokesperson, acknowledge people’s deep emotions, and communicate regularly” (Scott, 2013, pg275).
In
this instance, CNN didn’t need an entire room solely dedicated for situation
because they handled the situation masterfully and in a timely fashion (See
what I did there? Play on words regarding CNN’s show The Situation Room… No?...
Ok, moving on).
Worries
about security breaches have been on the minds of many for years. According to an article from 2011 that
discussed a new survey at that time, “About 42 percent of the respondents are ‘moderately
concerned’ to ‘extremely concerned’ about the security threats associated with
employees using social media in the workplace. Social media was defined in the
survey as social networking sites, blogs, online video services, micro-sharing
and widgets” (eWeek, 2011).
The
article went on to say that a major point of concern was the accidental
downloading of viruses and the need for updated policies to be put in
place. “Approximately 36 percent of
network administrators said employees have unlimited access to social media. In
contrast, 48 percent said employees have limited access, and 16 percent claimed
no access to social media. Around 60 percent of administrators said their
organizations have a formal policy about employee access to social media at
work” (eWeek, 2011).
So
a few years prior to the hacking at CNN, various network administrators were
discussing the need for better policies to be in place regarding the use of social
media at work. Clearly, in the case of
CNN, as a news organization they need to have a social media presence. There was not much that CNN could have done
differently to prevent the hacking of their accounts as they covered all of their
bases prior to this attack. Maybe more training
or an updated installation of malware would be helpful to prevent such a
situation from happening again. Can you
think of any other ways in which they could prevent hacking in the future?
References
Rashid,
Fahmida Y. (May 4, 2011). eWeek. Network Breaches, Social Media, Smartphones
Worry Administrators: Survey. Retrieved on February 25, 2015 from http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Network-Breaches-Social-Media-Smartphones-Worry-Administrators-Survey-430279
Scott, David
M. (2013). The New Rules of Marketing & PR. (4th ed.). Hoboken,
New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Shoichet,
Catherine E. (January 24, 2014). CNN. Some CNN social media accounts hacked.
Retrieved on February 25, 2015 from http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/23/tech/cnn-accounts-hacked/index.html
