Instagram Gets Its ‘First Dedicated Security Solution’

Tech security firm Proofpoint claims to have launched the first ever solution geared towards boosting security and privacy on Instagram.

Proofpoint SocialPatrol automatically identifies Instagram security threats, compliance violations and inappropriate content for removal. The solution performs advanced analysis of images, text and text embedded within images, enabling brands and compliance-aware companies to monitor and eliminate posts and comments.

Inappropriate comments

Jeff Hagen, director of Global Customer Relations for General Mills, said: “Proofpoint SocialPatrol helped us control high levels of spam and inappropriate comments on our Instagram accounts.

“Without the Proofpoint SocialPatrol technology, our only recourse would have been a costly expansion of our manual moderation or risk losing followers.”

Proofpoint SocialPatrol scans all Instagram images, captions and comments on brand or corporate-owned accounts for pornographic, malicious or otherwise inappropriate content and notifies account owners. Once identified, social media marketers can easily remove inappropriate posts made by cybercriminals, spammers and rogue employees.

Devin Redmond, VP and GM of Proofpoint Social Media Security and Compliance, said: “85 percent of top brands are using Instagram to connect with consumers – and with more than 400 million monthly active users, brands need a way to more safely engage.

“Proofpoint SocialPatrol for Instagram allows companies across all verticals that may have hesitated to invest in Instagram, to adopt it more rapidly and effectively with compliance and security built-in. We are the first company to adapt security to this new phase of visual-based social communication by providing automated security scanning for both images and text within Instagram.”

Keyword and text-only security compliance solutions are blind to images on Instagram and generate too many false detections. Proofpoint SocialPatrol analyses text and images and compares them to more than 100 algorithmic classifiers. This analysis allows brand managers to protect their brands by quickly identifying non-compliant, inappropriate and malicious posts and comments. Proofpoint SocialPatrol is said to complement Proofpoint SocialDiscover, which allows brands to find, track and audit branded Instagram accounts.

In addition to Instagram, the Proofpoint suite of social media solutions provides advanced tracking and protection for branded social media accounts across all major social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube.

Companies are apparently using its patent-pending technology to find their social accounts, report fraudulent accounts, stop hackers from defacing pages, remove malicious or inappropriate content, prevent unauthorised publishing workflow, and address compliance requirements.

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