Social networking sites muddle security pros

By Eric Ogren | Jul 2, 2009

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The explosive growth in social networking has positioned many security teams solidly between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, conscientious security executives cannot ignore the data loss and regulatory compliance risks to the corporation; on the other hand, security cannot politically survive by categorically objecting to other organizations innovative use of new business tools.

According to a recent Websense Inc. survey, the decision has already been made by the business units with 86% of IT respondents reporting pressure to allow more social networking in the business. The message resonates loud and clear to security: Resistance to advances in technology is futile; find secure ways that business can move forward.

More and more data is hosted outside of corporate data centers, with that data being accessed by end users via Internet protocols from within office buildings, personal computers at home, or anywhere/anytime mobile devices such as Apple iPhones. Enterprises are increasing investments in the use of social networking websites as a cost effective means of collaborating with prospects, customers, employees and partners. Facebook is hardly the sanctuary for the latest generation, as demographically its user base consists of professionals between ages 25 and 35. There is also the 1382% year-over-year growth rate in Twitter and the reported 152 million users watching 16.8 billion online videos on social networks that security has to contend with. Social networking is already ubiquitous and it is silly for IT to take a negative stand against these strong trends. But Twitter risks and Facebook threats are real. The best approach for security is to work with the business organizations to help make use of social websites as safe as possible while acknowledging that there are risks involved.

Educate employees and business partners on social networking risks. Web security training is a must. In many ways, the use of social websites follows the same common sense rules as using the telephone, showing business documents, or other settings that occur outside the confines of the office building. Security should be conducting regular communications on responsible handling of confidential data, the dangers of following suspicious links on social websites and make resources available if they have any questions or need help with recovery from a security incident. Employees should also know that in highly regulated industries, such as finance with stringent auditing requirements, violations of acceptable behavior policies may result in termination.

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