The Marines will block access to Twitter, Facebook and MySpace on its enterprise network for at least a year over concerns about security.
“These Internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries. The very nature (of social networking sites) creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides and easy conduit for information leakage” that puts operational security, communications, personnel and the network at risk.
The conversation today revolves around whether this move by the Marines is prudent. The other big question: Can the Pentagon coexist with social networking sites? My take is that it is: Posting on Facebook in the field can be the equivalent of broadcasting you’re on vacation. It’s just an invitation for the bad guys.
What remains to be seen if there’s a morale hit among the troops that use these tools to stay in touch with loved ones at home. There’s no ban on email though. Email is old school but still quite effective.
Is the social networking ban a smart move?
