SOCIAL MEDIA LAWYER

by Jeffrey C. O'Brien, Lommen Abdo Cole King & Stageberg, P,A.

Tipson How to Avoid Social Media Hacking

passwords. Choose unique passwordsand change them regularly. Also, whenan employee leaves, change the pass-words to your accounts.

• Act quickly if you do fall victim to asecurity breach. Try to log in to youraccount and change the password.Also, temporarily disconnect any accessto third-party applications regarding

your accounts, and quickly notify youronline followers (via your websiteand/or blog) that your account(s) werecompromised and that you are workingto remedy the situation.

• Use of third-party social mediadashboards such as Hootsuite can also

provide greatsecurity for yoursocial mediaactivities.

• Finally, if anyoneon staff is usingsmartphones toaccess your busi-ness' social mediaplatforms, be sure O'BRIEN

that those phonesare also password protected.

It is unfortunate that some bad actorswork so hard to create mayhem throughbusinesses' social media platforms. Fortu-nately, by utilizing key security measuresand closely monitoring your company'ssocial media presence, your business willnot be the next Burger King or Jeep story.

Jeffrey C.0 'Brien, Attorney at LawLommen Abdo Cole King & Stageberg, PA.(612) 336-9317jobrien@lommen.com

Burger King sold to McDonalds?Jeep sold to Cadillac? If youbelieve everything you read on

Twitter, you may have thought thesethings happened, thanks to some cleverand malicious social media hackers.

Social media has become big business.Both Facebook and Twitter now sellstrategically-placed advertising, andthese platforms have become criticalin companies' efforts to establish andpromote their brands, A successful socialmedia campaign takes time. By contrast,the damage incurred due to a socialmedia hacking attack can be far moreimmediate and longer lasting.

How does a business get "hacked" in thesocial media universe? A hacking attackcan happen many ways. Someone couldstumble upon your password throughillicit means. Other attacks come in theform of a virus found on a website orsent via email.

In terms of the various social media sites,a hacking attack can be most devastatingin the Twitter universe. Why? Becauseeveryone can see your Twitter account(by contrast, your Facebook page isvisible only to your desired friends andfollowers). Twitter continues to takesteps to improve the security of its onlineenvironment, but the company's securitymeasures can only go so far.

Simply choosing not to participate onsocial media sites is not a viable securitystrategy for a business in these times.So how does a business stay safe in thesocial media space? Here are a few tips:

• Monitor your business' social mediapresence. It's not enough to set up anaccount; you need to pay attention toit. Also, setting up a daily query onGoogle Alerts for your company'sname wouldn't hurt either.

• Protect your social media passwords.Hackers try to find points of entry intobusinesses' social media accounts bytesting a variety of passwords. Do notmake it easy for them to discovery your

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Further, an average electrical plant run bycoal generates approximately 3,700,000tons of carbon dioxide every year. Thatsame plant also creates about 10,000 tonsof sulfur dioxide, which is known to cre-ate acid rain.

This is all before pointing out the undueburden a regulation such as this wouldhave on the cost to consumers, especiallyto those living in HOAs.

Older furnaces, it was noted, vent througha flue on the roof. Higher efficiency fur-naces require a sidewall vent becauseof the demands for oxygen to run. Thisin turn makes it difficult to install sucha furnace in an HOA. Not only is spacelimited, but much like T.v. dishes in the90's, HOA's also must determine issueswith architectural consistency, as well aswho is responsible for maintenance whena new hole is punched through a commonelement such as siding.

It was also noted that in many two-storyhomes, a furnace can also be found in theattic. Because this type of high efficiencyfurnace also produces condensation, thiscan freeze in colder weather, causingfurther damage in those attics.

The most compelling argument of all wasthe APGA pointing out that most of theirinformation about the impact on the envi-ronment came from the DOE. Therefore,this new ruling would actually causegreater problems than it would solve.

Therefore, it is always good to keep inmind that in any important decision thedemands to act now never take the placeof deliberate and thoughtful investigationand debate. -

Gene Sullivan - President, New ConceptsManagement and radio host of "WhereYou Live" with Gene & Toni, Saturdaysat 10:00 a.m. on AM 1280, the Patriot.

SPRING 2013 CIC MIDWEST NEWS 23