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Another week another tale of woe for social networking site LinkedIn. After news that a data and security breach had resulted in 6.5 million users having their details stolen by hackers, now it has been reported that the emails sent to users to tell them to change their password have been marked as spam.

After the security breach was confirmed, LinkedIn contacted millions of users to instruct them to change their password. As the breach had involved hackers stealing authentication details, then changing passwords should protect their account. Yet one internet provider says they see an increase in spam, suggesting the emails never made it into inboxes.

It is a frustrating time for the social network and the full ramifications of the impact it will have on its brand are not yet known. The power of a social network is that you feel it is an extension of your personality. There is huge trust and investment on the side of the user as they handover personal details to their network to promote themselves and reach a wider audience. This is particularly true of LinkedIn, often pitched as the network for professionals. The fact that their data has been stolen may lead some users to wonder if they should even keep their account going.

There is no suggestion that LinkedIn’s security features were anything other than up to scratch, but it again highlights the importance of ensuring business data is as secure as possible.

Security has long been one of the main questions asked about the cloud. Providers need to work hard to convince users of the systems they put in place to ensure business data stored within data centres in the Cloud is as protected as it can be and is safe from hackers.
Giacom’s security system is award winning. Its hosted Exchange relies on a protection service for emails protecting from spam, viruses and unwanted emails. There is secure message archiving where emails are analysed as well as compliance and disaster recovery in case of a crash. The system essentially provides a ring of security around emails, whether using an on-site serve or hosted, like on a POP3.
Users can access the Email security console to provide access to all the accounts where emails are indexed and archived so they can be seen online or redelivered. Monitoring systems for any spam can also be used.

To tackle spam Giacom performs 90 tests on emails, scanning them quickly so there is no delay and holding onto spam for 14 days for review. It makes any businesses email system safer and more secure. It is a filtering process that sees any email that is potentially spam or contains a virus never reaches the inbox.

Back-up and archiving is a huge part of this offer, important if a business email fails and you need to continue working off-site. Keeping communication open is vital.

When one security scandal hits the Cloud it acts like a wave affecting all those who offer cloud services. The security breach at LinkedIn will have unsettled users and it’s important for those working in the Cloud to emphasise their own security precautions helping allay fears and emphasise the importance of protecting the business data of anyone who invests.

Tags: anti-spam, anti-virus, archiving, Cloud, computing, Email, hackers, LinkedIn, security, spam, virus

This entry was posted on Monday, June 18th, 2012 at 10:14 am and is filed under Laura Brown. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.