Aug 13 2009
Social Networking Sites Banned by Marines
According to the Christian Science Monitor and other reputable media sources, the marines have banned social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter. Currently, the Pentagon is reviewing its entire policy on the use of social networking sites. Can you imagine the enemy discovering troop locations or military tactical data via social networking? Ironic timing, as just a few weeks ago I was delivering an identity theft speech at the Pentagon and recorded a short video about this problem.
Facebook Privacy & The Pentagon
The Christian Science Monitor ran the following quote from a memo distributed Tuesday to all Marines:
The very nature of [social networking sites] creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts [operational and communication security] personnel and the [Marine Corps network] at an elevated risk of compromise.
7 Hazards of Social Networking
Most of the risks of social networking fall into one of the following categories, which I call the 7 Hazards of Social Networking:
- Impersonation. Does the social networking account (e.g., Twitter Account) belong to the actual person or company it is representing? For example, if you look at the Twitter account @johnsileo, you will see that my name is used to send business to a gentleman who is also an identity theft speaker. My actual account is @john_sileo. Whether this is considered social networking squatting or social networking identity theft, it’s impersonation.
