Social Media Threats, The President’s Cyberspace Policy Review, and Neckties

Some thoughts, musings, and follow-ups as the short week draws to a close.

• Within minutes of posting the blog entry about social media and noting the post on Twitter, I received my first Twitter spam.  A real estate professional direct messaged the @Triumfant ID.  Out of curiosity I checked the sender ID and the outbound messages were all direct spam.  Given that the recent Symantec/MessageLabs Intelligence Report cites that over ninety percent of email is now spam, it would only seem a matter of time before places like Twitter begin to choke.  I was amazed at how much spam we get on our blog and how fast the spammers found it.
• That same MessageLabs report also notes that social networking sites are especially vulnerable to threats because the content is created by the users of those sites.  In other words, without rigor, there will be vulnerabilities, and that is where the bad guys will set up shop.
• The President’s long awaited and anticipated cyber security report will be announced today.  I do not expect that we will hear much earth shattering information, as the security industry is very adept at quantifying the cyber threat.  That is, after all, one sure way to move product.  What will likely be more entertaining is the analysis of every nuance of the report, as well as the rush of every security vendor to claim that they are the lone company to provide the remedy for the problems outline in the report.  You will of course know that all of that is a fabrication as Triumfant is clearly the solution (sorry, could not resist).
• I have worn a tie every day this week.  Why is that important?  Well, to the head of marketing of a startup, that means that I have been on a meaningful sales call each and every day this week.  People are beginning to hear the message and have genuine interest in the benefits that Triumfant can offer their organization.  Because our solution is so unique and so different from the other tools on the market, the calls are normally very lively and we go from PowerPoint to very constructive conversations very early in the call.  It makes for a fun call when people “get” what we do and immediately begin to map the technology to practical application.  I love being on these calls and it has been a blast to take the message out to prospects, so I don’t mind the tie at all.