You probably already know this but the folks at Symantec seemed a bit surprised when they surveyed security professionals and found out—surprise—you’re just like everyone else. “Our first discovery was that security administrators are not much different than anyone else—they do use social networks,” write Kevin Haley in his Symantec “Grab Bag” blog. “Only 30 percent say they do not use social networks…”
Also not surprising is the finding that 60 percent of those surveyed say they keep their personal and professional networks separate; 70 percent say they will refuse a connection or “friend” request they receive on a social network.
But what end users accessing social networks in the enterprise? The biggest concern was for lost productivity (53 percent), followed by data leakage (48 percent) and malicious code attacks (43 percent). Still, the vast majority—72 percent—don’t block access to social networks at work, and have no plans to implement such a policy, Symantec found.
Haley goes on to predict that social networks are following the same fear/adoption curve that instant messaging once faced. It began being used in the business, vendors added security, users became knowledgeable about the threats, and now it’s a legit business tool at most companies.
