Social Media Scams Litter the Landscape: A Threat to the U.S. Army

Social media use has become increasingly prevalent in today's Army, but with it comes the threat of online scams. Fake profiles, impostors, and online scams are common, and Army leaders and Soldiers must be vigilant to protect themselves from falling into these traps. The Army authorizes the use of social media in both official and personal capacities, but education is key to staying safe. Social media scam artists work tirelessly to steal personal information, impersonate Soldiers, and try to acquire sensitive information.

Key Takeaways:

• The Army has authorized the use of social media in both official and personal capacities, but social media scam artists work tirelessly to steal personal information, impersonate Soldiers, and try to acquire sensitive information.
• The Robin Sage Experiment, conducted in 2009, demonstrated how easy it is for someone to penetrate social media circles and extract sensitive information from security-minded individuals.
• Fake profiles, impostors, and online scams are common, and Army leaders and Soldiers must be vigilant to protect themselves from falling into these traps.
• Social media scam artists use various tactics, including impersonating deceased Soldiers to solicit money from unsuspecting victims, and using fake profiles to steal photos and use them as own profile pictures.
• The Online and Social Media Division (OSMD) has produced and distributed dozens of training documents detailing effective and safe social media use, including the Social Media Handbook, which examines everything from blogging to using social media for crisis communications.
• To stay safe, social media users should not share information that they don't want to become public, verify "friend" requests by phone or other means, and control access permissions based on groups.
• Social media users should also be cautious about what they post about their lives, be careful about listing job, military organization, education, and contact information, and assume that the enemy is reading every post made to social media platforms.

Statistics:

• In the Robin Sage Experiment, the fake persona "Robin Sage" collected hundreds of friends and extracted sensitive information from those in the intelligence and cyber communities over a few months. (Source: Provide Security, a cyber security company, December 2009)
• The Online and Social Media Division (OSMD) has produced and distributed dozens of training documents detailing effective and safe social media use. (Source: U.S. Army, n.d.)
• 1 in 5 individuals falls victim to social media scams. (Note: No specific source is mentioned in the text for this statistic, so it is not included)

Sources:

• U.S. Army, Social Media Handbook, (no publication date mentioned)
• U.S. Army, Social Media Division, n.d.
• Provide Security, Robin Sage Experiment, December 2009
• New York Post, (no specific article mentioned, but the text references an incident reported by the New York Post earlier this year)