Social networking can cause problems in the workplace, but there are solutions

• Article 19 of 33
• SC Magazine, December 2009
• View the original article online

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Fortinet's Fortigate Fortimanager will analyse logs for auditing. “It correlates all information in a human-usable interface, and it will hook into AD user names,” says Fortinet's Paul Judd. With details of 1,300 applications that can be controlled at a granular level, the Fortinet software allows MSN messenger, for instance, to be blocked from using too much bandwidth or sending files. At the very least, it's possible to monitor who has been using certain sites, for how long, and how actively. “One client we had was distinctly underwhelmed. Employees were being considerably less than productive. But people have been laid off, there are now fewer people doing the same work and most don't have the time to be unproductive,” says Judd.

With many Web 2.0 security threats coming from redirects, software and services from companies such as Blue Coat and Sunbelt that can prescan URLs or malicious behaviour can be extremely useful.

Alexandru Catalin Cosoi, senior researcher at BitDefender, suggests simple education may be the best way forward. “Make them aware. Tell them to stay on Twitter and not to click a URL from anybody. If you're worried about Facebook productivity, tell them they can play games, but only for ten minutes at a go.”

Rules also need to be drawn up for less obvious aspects of Web 2.0 usage. With the personal and professional blurring on such sites, usage for work of Facebook, IM et al requires some thought about the implications of personal information being drawn into the professional world.

“One woman was providing customer support from her personal IM account. However, her screen name was something like Sexygal123. It didn't appear very professional,” says ArcSight's Caccia. Fortinet's Judd says companies need to work with employees to make sure they understand how to ensure messages are appropriate and that information they post won't compromise the company.

Despite most companies' policies, total bans on Web 2.0 are only likely to turn people away, rather than stop infections.

With more liberal attitudes reinforced by acceptable usage policies in contracts, education and technology, Web 2.0 technologies can be largely secure tools for business.

Do social networking sites take security seriously?
While undoubtedly there is malware being spread through Web 2.0, that's also true of email, instant messaging and other systems. These are all rightly regarded as suitable for enterprise use, provided precautions are taken. But are site hosts doing enough to ensure their systems are secure?

Says Simon Axten, privacy and public policy associate at Facebook: “We devote significant resources to helping users protect accounts and information. Facebook was named one of the top ten most trusted companies in an independent survey by TRUSTe and the Ponemon Institute.”

Axten says the company has built numerous defences to combat phishing and malware, including automated systems that detect and flag Facebook accounts likely to be compromised. These work by looking at anomalous activity such as large numbers of messages sent in a short period of time, or messages with links known to be bad. Once a phony message is detected, Facebook deletes all instances of it across the site.

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