Aust CIOs overstep mark on social networks

Beverley Head
Wednesday, 17 November 2010 11:38

Business IT - Security

More than 50 per cent of Australian enterprises are blocking access to social networks - a higher percentage than other nations - mostly as a result of CIO interference. But IT analyst firm Gartner today stressed that CIOs who determine an enterprise's approach to social networking are overstepping the limits of their authority.

Andrew Walls, Gartner research director for information security and privacy, said that; 'Social networking is not an IT question.' It was instead a business decision.

Asking a CIO to decide whether or not to allow social network access in an enterprise was akin to asking the CIO whether or not a business should engage in advertising, he said.

Mr Walls said that quite often social network blocking was implemented by CIOs; 'For non security reasons - to protect staff productivity.' He described this as a 'magpie approach' with CIOs arguing that if they 'take away the bright shiny things people will work.'

'That's not management, that's hope,' said Mr Walls. Staff productivity was an issue for HR departments rather than CIOs he said.

Speaking during Gartner's Symposium which is being held in Sydney this week, Mr Walls said that the technology landscape being shaped by trends such as social networking and cloud computing which demanded a fresh approach to computer security. He said that it was important to rely not simply on technology solutions, but also to tackle processes and behaviours to ensure a more holistic approach to security.

'Australian clients are struggling with this. There is a higher percentage blocking access to social networks than in the US and Europe,' he said.

'We have seen a gradual decay of blocking - but still there are more than 50 per cent of organisations which actively block access to external services.'

Even with official blocks, employees would be able to access social networks and external services using their own connected devices, and organisations needed to prepare for the additional organisational transparency that generated he warned. 'This is a challenge especially for government - if a problem becomes transparent.