Social Media's Impact on Network Security

A 2009 FaceTime survey shows that 62% of IT professionals believe social network sites are being accessed on the networks they maintain. However, in reality 100% of businesses surveyed had evidence of social networking site use.

While companies have a vested interest in how much time employees spend on social networking sites, only 24% are "extremely concerned" that it will damage efficiency. In fact, the amount of time taken to access these applications is often balanced out by the potential productivity allowed by the interconnectivity of a Web 2.0 world.

Although many IT departments have begun monitoring and recording the usage of these sites on their network, only 49% - down 2% from 2008 - could produce documents if asked to do so by management, and over 60% of IT professionals still view incoming Malware as their biggest network threat.

In many cases, companies do not consider the traffic of data out as a a potential problem. Should a user choose to post a sensitive file, conversation, or other piece of company information on a social networking website, it can never be fully removed, and can be almost instantly copied to other sites. This creates the potential for a serious network breach simply based on the way social networking sites are viewed and operated. As a result, companies are finding themselves needing to create social networking usage rules and standards, and examining methods for the tracking and retention of data sent out over a network.