SOCIAL NETWORKS POSE THREATS

By K.C.Bishoppe

It's true that social networking is growing rapidly and more and more companies are using social network to increase their business.

However, with social networks come a variety of threats that could be potentially damaging to the good name of the brand.

Numerous instances of impersonation have taken place and social media cybersquatting is approximately where domain site cybersquatting was ten years ago.

When people use variations on brand names to open social networking accounts it's generally because they hope companies will pay them for the accounts.

But while domains have a central authority (ICANN), social netoworking sites don't have any central authority. There is also a lack of procedures and processes for reclaiming brand names from cybersquatters.

In the meantime cybersquatters, spammers and pirates have cost brand name companies millions of dollars in losses, much of which goes unnoticed unless the company is actively monitoring for such problems.