New PiiQ Media Report Reveals High Social Media Risk in the U.S. Defense Sector

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. defense contractor executives are at high risk for social engineering-based attacks due to poor social media cybersecurity hygiene, according to a new report released today by PiiQ Media. That's among the findings of PiiQ Media's U.S. Defense Sector Risk Report, which examines how these executives' personal cybersecurity practices could be putting the organizations they work for at greater risk. The full report is available at https://www.piiqmedia.com/resources/whitepaper-download?report=us-defense.

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U.S. defense companies have a high level of threat and an abundance of lucrative targets for malicious and state-sponsored actors. Employees' personal information exposure can have a significant impact on corporate risk, which means companies must adopt more actionable social media use policies and implement continual assessments of employees' personal information exposure.

PiiQ Media conducted a complete social media risk assessment of 165 U.S. defense contractor executives. PiiQ's researchers identified available social media accounts for each executive across LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and then applied PQ Risk's analysis and scoring. Among the findings:

• PiiQ was able to identify a business email address for 100% of executives; more than 64% of executives had three or more social media accounts that were easily discoverable.
• 46% of executives had email accounts that lacked proper security and authentication protocols, which enables attackers to more easily impersonate valid email accounts.

These factors increase the risk of social engineering-based attacks, also known as phishing, which are the most popular method of attack and one of the biggest threats to organizations overall. According to the 2021 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, such attacks increased by 11% from the prior year.

For attackers, the first step is typically to identity personas of interest based on an association with a company, job title or other organization based on membership or interest. PiiQ's analysis found that the majority of executives publicly list this information, and publicly exposed relationships related to employment and interests were accessible for 99% of the executives researched.

Aaron Barr, chief technology officer, PiiQ Media, said: "The data from our report reveals that individuals employed at some of the most sensitive companies in the U.S. have significant lapses in personal and corporate security practices that put both them and their companies at great risk. Companies must address this gap by adopting stronger social media policies and continually assessing employees' personal information exposure. Personal security and corporate security are directly linked. There are real corporate risks of having too much personal information available online."

About PiiQ
PiiQ is a social media threat intelligence and risk analytics company. Focused on delivering actionable personal and corporate intelligence and risk assessments using open-source information to stop socially engineered cybersecurity attacks, its SaaS-based platform safeguards enterprise and government organizations from employee, corporate and third-party risk. PiiQ addresses the human element of security with the most advanced threat intelligence analytics and automated risk scoring for individuals and organizations. With the only true spear phishing simulation platform on the market, PiiQ helps customers train, test and educate their workforce on information exposure risks and how to improve their security. Website: www.piiqmedia.com 

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SOURCE PiiQ Media