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Social Network Security (continued)

The visitor then has to input it onto the website for the verification to be accepted. "That means you are who you are,'' Richberg explains. "Anyone can go to any social networking site and say they're Bill Gates and claim to know people they don't really know. That's another layer we have that no one else has."

Always Employ Basic Security Measures
Protas says the easiest way for IT to prevent network vulnerabilities is simply by using software that lets administrators decide which sites people can access and which sites are blocked. "I would suggest there is no benefit for [corporate] users to be on MySpace so IT should block it. People are spending so much time on it that it's a huge productivity loss."

Howard concurs. "The recommendation is usually to not allow employees to use sites that utilize peer-to-peer communications," he says.

But in lieu of that, since, according to Protas, "there's really no way to filter out the good MySpace from the bad MySpace," IT should make sure every computer on the network is covered with basic Internet security software covering zero day, anti-virus, anti-phishing and spyware protection.

Howard also recommends that the enterprise communicate overall best practices to their employee on a regular basis. These include:

• Never provide personal information to someone in a social network environment since you never really know who is on the other end
• Never provide company confidential or proprietary information to someone in a social network environment
• Never perform file sharing across a social network environment

"It's hard to draw the line to decide what to allow and what not to,'' admits Protas. "So if you're going to try and block users from these sites, make sure you protect the end points."

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