“Because at the end of the day, if the leader doesn’t lead the culture of taking cybersecurity seriously, what can be expected of employees?” he said.

“There is still a lot of education to do, and in this case, leaders are responsible for cybersecurity measures,” he added.įredrikson noted that both Sony Pictures chairperson Amy Pascal and Ashley Madison CEO Noel Biderman had to step down from their roles in the wake of hacking scandals. The scammers just assume the identity of CEOs and send out emails with the subject title ‘URGENT TRANSACTION,’ demanding employees help out their bosses over a pending business deal.

“US$1.2 billion was lost to CEO fraud in 2015,” said Fredrikson, citing data from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). While social media has opened up a new attack surface, in industry parlance, the conventional vulnerabilities also remain, and are getting more sophisticated and insidious.įor instance, the latest is the ‘CEO scam’ or ‘CEO fraud,’ which makes use of the trusty old email system: Hackers send fake emails, purportedly from bosses, to employees, asking for money. READ ALSO: There are spies in your fibre! But sometimes sharing isn’t such a good thing,” he told a media briefing in Kuala Lumpur on April 14, celebrating F-Secure’s 10th anniversary in Malaysia. “I understand most of it is for good intentions, as many people rely on social media for recruitment. It is time to stop the sharing! Or at least, to be more circumspect about it.į-Secure Corp president and chief executive officer (CEO) Christian Fredrikson (pic above) believes people are sharing too much information about their work life on social media, which will end badly if they are targeted by hackers. But little do you know that cybercriminals are already circling, ready to steal your new work identity and use it to hack into your new company’s networks. YOU’VE got a new job, you’re happy and decide to share it with the world via social media.

Christian fredrikson f secure