Is Social Media Compromising Your Company's Data?

These days, it seems like everyone is on one form of social media or another. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and a plethora of smaller social media sites have big followings. People want to be in the know 24/7 about everything from where to buy the cheapest gas to what the latest funny video making the viral rounds on YouTube is. Even more than that, they want their voices heard; they utilize social media to make their opinions known, to ask questions, to join communities of other like-minded people.

The good part is that many businesses are now leveraging social media in their marketing and customer service initiatives. Companies now have entire departments devoted to monitoring social media, so clearly social media plays a significant role in business today.

The bad part is that social media sites are often ripe with links that can open the doors to computer viruses and hackers. For example, an employee could accidentally click on a pop up or a malicious (but innocuous looking) link and open up his computer (and possibly the entire company network) to viruses and other online threats.

That type of harm is usually unintended; when employees "tweet" or post Facebook updates about the company or fellow employees, though, they are generally intending harm, if not to the company, then to a specific co-worker.

In a worst case, confidential information can be made public by an employee who is on the way out the door (someone who has put in notice or who is openly disgruntled). Or, one employee can post libelous comments about another. Usually, unless the offending employee posts a libelous statement with a "company" social media account, the liability belongs with that person.

But social media law is a burgeoning area; there is still a great deal that is unknown (much like Internet law). So, what can your company do to protect itself in this social media age?

The first recommendation is to restrict social media to those employees whose jobs require it (sales, marketing, etc.). Social media most certainly has its place when it comes to sales and marketing, but it's often a headache for IT and legal compliance departments.

Don't give everyone access to social media; use desktop management approach to restrict all access or limit the use of social media sites within the network. If social media is necessary to someone's job, by all means, make sure he has it. But don't feel like you can't block social media sites;otherwise let them tweet and Facebook on their own time. Your company's security and liability are dependent on you putting your foot down. However, once your employees are out of the workplace, they can use their own internet connection to access social media sites and possibly comprise your company.

A final and effective approach to thwarting social media-related problems is to create a social media policy. Educate employess about social media and its implications for the company. Put your company's policy towards this new media in writing and have each employee sign off that they know social media sites shouldn't be visited on company time, and that any social media posts should refrain from mentioning confidential information or libelous statements about other employees. Lastly, employees should never post as though they are representing the company if it is not explicitly in their job description.