Seeing The World Through Risk-Colored Glasses

The proliferation of consumer-based social networking throughout
enterprise organizations is creating a significant amount of security
risk that needs to be better understood and carefully managed before
it’s too late, according to the results of a global study commissined by Cisco, which revealed a widespread and growing need for more policies, processes and IT architecture.

The study, which was designed to assess how organizations use
consumer social networking tools to collaborate externally and how such
use is governed, found that the use of consumer-based social networking
tools - such as Facebook and Twitter - as collaboration platforms is
connecting organizations with the external world unprecedented ways.

But while these tools have the promise to better marry technology
and business, link people and information, establish potential new
routes to market, and enhance customer intimacy and brand awareness,
the business world is still only in the early stages of identifying key
challenges, such as the need for increased governance and IT
involvement.

via www.marketingcharts.com

In principle, I have no problem discussing the risks in companies adopting social technologies.

However, when some groups or individuals start out with an agenda the fear and aversion factor may be dialed way up — in this case the studies involved were commissioned by Cisco. Cisco has — no surprise — a sizable security business, and is moving into the business of telling others how to secure their social technologies and practices.

The Future of Social Networking and Collaboration Tools in the Enterprise

• Across the board, respondents recognized that consumer-based social
  networking and collaboration tools will continue to evolve, as will
  their complexity, and that these tools will continue to influence the
  way business is conducted. The key for organizations will be the way
  they adopt and integrate these tools into the enterprise IT environment.


• The following issues need to be addressed regarding the adoption,
  deployment and governance of social networking in the enterprise: when,
  how and what initiatives are to be launched (and not launched); how the
  enabling technologies should be managed; and how employee use of these
  technologies should be managed.

I will leave aside the question of ‘managing’ employee use of social networking for another time, perhaps if and when I get a chance to talk to people at Cisco.

I think companies starting on a path toward exploiting social networks for the business should be 90% offense and 10% defense. Cisco may be trying to reverse the ratios.