Speaking at the Gartner Symposium in Florida this week Carol Rozwell, a Gartner vice president, told delegates that banning access to social media from the corporate network is futile. She said that companies shouldn't block social networking and that security shouldn't completely lock down communications with the outside world. She argued that even if information technology authorities want to shut down such activity, they can't.
“While a job may be regarded as an economic transaction, the human brain thinks of the workplace as a social system," she said, making the point that humans are social creatures and that there's more to employee relations than a paycheck for work performed. Social networking can make employees "feel valued, a part of a community, and earn the respect of peers”.
Peter Sondergaard, Gartner' senior vice president of research, echoed her comments, adding that companies must acknowledge that not everything is under control of their own top-down administration. "We're moving from control to greater autonomy," Sondergaard said, adding that managers also must find an appropriate place on the spectrums of in here vs. out there and owned vs. shared.
But with the widespread use of Web 2.0, employees should get used to a greater corporate presence in their social-networking lives, though. As Finjan, we wholeheartedly agree with Gartner’s view. As we have shown for the last two years, social networking is also done by cybercriminals to spread their malware, causing majors security issues. Apart from the obvious security risks, enterprises are also worried about loss of productivity and data leakage of confidential or sensitive corporate data. Enterprises want to make sure that their employees can use social network sites safely, without compromising corporate security or productivity.
The best option for enterprises is to choose a web security solution that uses real-time content inspection. Such a solution analyzes all Web content, and detects and blocks malicious content embedded in Web 2.0 pages. At the same time, legitimate content on the same webpage is allowed to be accessed. It means that all employees, regardless if they are working remotely or in the office, can safely access their favorite news websites, post on their blogs, or ask advice on a user forum, without the risk of their machine being infected.
Subscribe