Two weeks ago I attended the Cyber Security Summit, a gathering of the cyber tribe that took place here in NYC. Sure there were a few things I learned. Mobile apps are barely checked for security and privacy holes before they’re placed on virtual shelves in iTunes and Android Market. I also discovered that even among the cyber vendors who manned (and occasionally womanned) the panels, there are definite qualms in monitoring school age children’s social media stream–though they will and have sold their software to school districts.
Then during one panel discussion on social media, my eyebrows raised a few inches as I started hearing serious talk about a cyber reputation score, similar to a financial credit score, which would be given to all of us. Why do we need a CRS, you ask?
The “problem” faced by companies is that there are certain citizens of the web that are squatting on their Google page 1 results! And they are not allowing the company to get a uniform message across because–my fingers tremble as I type this–they have a different opinion than the spinmeisters of their marketing department!
So therefore these refuseniks need to be tracked, rated on their disobedience, and then employers can look them up in a central database, as they do with credit ratings, to decide whether they would be a good risk as a new hire. That’s the punishment part of the equation. To undo the damage that’s been wrought, there are also services that help clean a corporate reputation–removing inconsistent brand messages from search results.
Of course, there are legitimate reasons to manage “reputation” on the web or less odious reasons than others. But it strikes this blogger that Serge and Larry’s system to rate search results is pretty much doing what it’s intended to–get a truer sense of what’s important by effectively crowdsourcing rankings. It’s the free market of ideas at work! And, gasp, that means that there may be stuff said that wasn’t approved by PR.
If your worldview stopped around the time Don and Peggy were helping cigarette companies with their image problems, then the Interbooz is a major threat. And in that case, the social media session panelists at the Cyber Security Summit were making great business sense, no doubt, to the Montgomery Burns-types in the audience.
Yes, my hackles were raised by some of the memes radiating from this particular panel. Treating what is essentially a PR problem as a threat degrades the meaning of cyber security or more accurately morphs it into a Ministry of Truth operation.
Image credit: obeygiant