Author Archives: Jared Wade

About Jared Wade

Jared Wade is a freelance writer and former editor of the Risk Management Monitor and senior editor of Risk Management magazine. You can find more of his writing at JaredWade.com.

The Risks of Social Media

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social media twitter

For our October 2009 issue of Risk Management magazine, I wrote a cover story on the risks of social media. We called it “The New Wild West” given the lawless (or at least “precedent-less”) nature that today’s online world shares with the days of Jesse James and Billy the Kid.

Our main goal was to introduce the topic of social media — and all of its many risks — to an audience that may not be as familiar with this emerging threat as it should be. Companies and risk managers are always racing to keep up with the latest tech risks, but preventing viruses and securing databases is generally a responsibility for IT. Well, even though social media exists in the digital domain, many of its risks are old-world issues. There are real compliance, legal, reputational, privacy and intellectual property concerns in addition to all the IT exposures.

In the weeks and months to come, we will be taking an in-depth look at each of these issues individually in our Risks of Social Media post series, but, to kick things off, I just want to punctuate the key takeaway from what I wrote in October.

“Employers are going to be held liable for the behavior of their employees,” said Simonson. “Is harassment going on in social media? Breach of proprietary information? Employees can easily leak trade secrets.”

These things are not new risks, per se, but it is now much easier for one foolish error by an employee to become a significant issue. Once an employee hits the “reply” or “post” button, the information is now public and, because it is digital, it is essentially engraved in stone on a server somewhere.

“Users are becoming their own unedited publishers,” said Simonson. “I don’t think the risks are all that different from the past. There’s just a much greater chance for it. In the past, controlling all published material was easy.”

As always, what your company does can hurt you. And that includes all the individual actions of all your employees. Now, many of those actions just happen to occur outside of the physical world — and they occur instanteously and with less forethought than ever before, which makes them inherently more difficult to manage.

But you can do it. First, you just need to understand exactly what these risks are.

In addition to reading my aforementioned article, I encourage you to watch the video below from a panel discussion I recently participated in. (I’m the bald guy with the beard.) We gave a 90-minute presentation for an event hosted by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), and the clip is a 10-minute “best of” video that offers some nice insights into (1) monetizing opportunities, (2) restricting employee access to social networking sites, (3) who should “own” social media, (4) the legal risks of social media, and (5) “going viral.”

You can listen to the 30-minute, audio version at the IABC Philadelphia website as well.

And, most importantly, be sure to check back here regularly to read more from our Risks of Social Media series. (In the meantime, you can also see some of our previous social media coverage here.)

For more on social media generally and how it is transforming how we interact with one another and distribute information, watch this video.

Volcanic Ash Not Dissipating, Airports Still Closing

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The New York Times is providing fantastic coverage of the still-lingering volcanic ash cloud that has been severely disrupting — and in most places completely halting — air traffic in Europe since the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in Iceland on Wednesday.

Here is the Times‘ graphic showing just how widespread the airport closures have been.

Eyjafjallajökull volcano airport

Over on their The Lede blog they also have video of the ongoing Eyjafjallajökull eruption, showing exactly how all that ash got into the atmosphere. Truly amazing. But truly troubling as well — and with no timetable for when flights may be able to resume.

Volcanologists had no reliable prediction of how long the eruption would continue, as travelers scrambled for train reservations, rental cars and hotel rooms. Others simply searched for comfortable benches in airports, which were considerably calmer and emptier than on Friday as passengers realized that no flights would be going in or out.
Europe’s three largest airports — London Heathrow, Frankfurt and Paris-Charles de Gaulle — were all shut on Saturday, with officials hoping that flights could resume sometime Sunday or, more likely, Monday.

Volcanologists had no reliable prediction of how long the eruption would continue, as travelers scrambled for train reservations, rental cars and hotel rooms. Others simply searched for comfortable benches in airports, which were considerably calmer and emptier than on Friday as passengers realized that no flights would be going in or out.

Europe’s three largest airports — London Heathrow, Frankfurt and Paris-Charles de Gaulle — were all shut on Saturday, with officials hoping that flights could resume sometime Sunday or, more likely, Monday.

Yikes.

Eyjafjallajökull Volcano Is Disruptive, Awesome

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Aviation authorities throughout the UK, France, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe were forced to halt all flights today as a giant plume of volcanic ash blow over the continent. The Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland erupted Wednesday, causing some flooding and general inconvenience domestically, but the lingering and drifting cloud has caused the most problems.

The shutdown, among the most sweeping ever ordered in peacetime, forced the cancellation of thousands of flights and left airplanes stranded on the tarmac at some of the world’s busiest airports as the rolling cloud — made up of minute particles of silicate that can severely damage airplane engines — spread over Britain and toward continental Europe.

Obviously, this whole event is interrupting business throughout the EU and that is a big pain in the tuckus and people are upset and concerned and companies are losing money and yadda yadda yadda…

But much more importantly … LOOK, GUYS, IT’S LAVA … pretty much my favorite thing ever.

Below is a photo of an amazing eruption earlier this month by Eyjafjallajökull. I have no idea how to pronounce that. But it sure is gorgeous. Check out the Boston Globe‘s photo gallery for more awesome — both in the traditional sense and in cool-kid-vernacular — photos.

Eyjafjallajökull volcano glacier ash plane

An eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano earlier this year. (Photo: Ulrich Latzenhofer via the Boston Globe)

UPDATE: Even better, here’s video of an eruption in late March.

UPDATE II: And, OK, fine … here’s some actual info about the insurance and business implications of the Eyjafjallajokull disruption from our friends at National Underwriter. (h/t @travel_facts)

Gordon Woo, lead catastrophist for Risk Management Solutions, said insurance implications from the Eyjafjöll volcano eruptions could include payouts from Iceland’s national natural catastrophe insurance fund—which covers volcanic eruptions and glacial floods—if there is damage.

Additionally, he said business interruption for the aviation industry could be triggered due to the temporary closure of airspace in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia as a precaution over the airborne ash plume.

Aviation and travel insurers will be hit by the cost of several days of flight cancellations, Mr. Woo noted.

Floods from the melting glaciers will likely cause river levels to rise and potentially cause damage, RMS said, citing Iceland’s Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management.

The ash cloud affect, said Bill McGuire from the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre, can cause major damage to aircraft by clogging engines and causing them to flame out, and by scouring windscreens so as to make them opaque.

The article also mentions that the last eruption by this volcano last 12 months — so there could be ash problems again in the future. Stay tuned.

And head over to National Underwriter for even more insights from Woo and McGuire.

FEMA & the Media Cooperate for Better Preparedness

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Earlier this month at the 2010 National Hurricane Conference, FEMA got together with media members from CNN, the Weather Channel and various other outlets for a panel session aimed at improving public awareness of preparedness principles.

As most risk managers know, the core tenants of disaster planning are not rocket science. Sure, there are some very high-level endeavors going on with in fields including catastrophe modeling, GPS mapping and geoengineering, but the greatest benefits of preparedness can generally be attained just by following its literal definition: be prepared.

To that end, the administrators and journalists discussed how they can collaborate better and help educate the public — particularly the youth. Here a video with some on-site insight from some of the people who were there. (video via FEMA)

UPDATE: Here’s another FEMA video on preparedness, this one featuring Lt. Gonzalo Gerardo of the Calexico Police Department on scene after the 7.2 quake that recently rocked the California/Mexico border region. (h/t @TheFireTracker2)