Keep your name off the list: securing administrative departments from the dangers of social malware

Abstract

Social malware poses a serious threat to administrative departments that deal with financial transactions. The accounts payable departments of academic institutions are especially vulnerable. The use of social malware exploits our lack of general awareness. The presence of excessive amounts of publicly available information can be used against an institution to plot malicious attacks using only social engineering tricks. Administrative departments should plan and work to prevent these attacks by educating their employees about such problems and making information as private as possible without hindering their institutional functions. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the effectiveness of a social malware attack on an accounts payable department. This paper also suggests how accounts payable departments can work to defend themselves against these kinds of social malware attacks.