Two Perspectives on Social Networks

Here’s one new piece of research from Sophos on the risks to companies of social networking:
63% of Businesses Fear That Social Networking Endangers their Corporate Security
“Social networks are becoming a default way for many employees to stay in touch with friends, colleagues, and business associates, but according to a new poll by the anti-virus firm Sophos, 63% of system administrators worry that employees who share too much personal information on social networking sites will put their company’s IT infrastructure at risk. A quarter of these businesses also report that they have been the victim of spam, phishing, and malware attacks via sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace.”

It is rational to worry about lost productivity, malware, and data leakage.
Then again, this concern has to be balanced by concerns about:
1. Are my employees connected to our customers in ways that they need to be?
2. Are we as connected as our competitors?
3. Can we see what is happening in cyberspace with our institution, brands and products?
4. Are we actively listening to where the important public conversations are happening?
5. What are the risks of being disconnected?
I like the last line in the article that malware and leaks are just as easy with e-mail.
Stephen