How IT views Web 2.0

A survey carried out at InfoSecurity has revealed IT professionals' attitudes and concerns about social media.

Key trends identified in the survey were that

• 61% of individuals surveyed used social media, compared with 21% of companies
• Facebook was most popular with individuals; Twitter most popular with companies
• Companies were more likely to update on a daily basis; individuals update weekly

The survey, carried out by Launchpad Europe, involved 100 IT professionals attending Infosecurity Europe last month. Of the 21 percent of respondents who reported that their organisations are using social media, over half said that the media of choice was Twitter. Other media being used included LinkedIn, LiveJournal and MySpace.

Mike Burkitt, director of Launchpad Europe, said, "Social media cannot be ignored by IT security professionals who know only too well that ignorance is not bliss and it is certainly no defense. No use are comments of 'tweeter beware,' 'my Facebook lips are sealed' or 'I don't know about Bebo.' IT security professionals must embrace all aspects of the social media phenomenon to fully understand this constantly evolving hotbed for information leakage and social engineering-savvy hackers. My advice is to make yourself and your company fluent in IT security 3.0."

According to the survey, companies are more likely to update their websites on a daily basis than individuals are. Ten of the 21 organisations who reported to use social media also said they updated their websites at least once a day.

Respondents were also asked to rate their concern about the security of social media on a scale of 1 to 5. Some respondents said that as IT security professionals, they understood the security issues surrounding social media and were therefore less concerned. Other respondents said that as IT security professionals, they saw it as their job to be especially concerned about the security issues surrounding social media. On a scale of 1 to 5, the average concern level was 3.69.

"We accept social media as an insecure medium," said Paul Guckian, a principal consultant at Delaney Consulting. "We are aware it's insecure and it's public." The simple solution, Guckian argued, is to understand the nature of the medium and to refrain from posting anything you wouldn't want aired in a public forum.

Jon Collins, Service Director at Free Form Dynamics, added that, "It is clear that we are entering new territory when it comes to the types of online threats that exist, let alone what should be done about them. While there are considerable business benefits to be had from social networking, we would urge organisations to recognise that it can be a two-edged sword, and deal with the risks accordingly."

Check out Mark Whitehorn's viewpoint on Data Mining of Social Media.