Staff Leak Military Secrets on Facebook and Twitter
Are your employees ( or you ) leaking sensitive data over the social networks? This report from the UK should give you pause.
The Ministry of Defence has admitted that staff leaked secret information 16 times on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter over an 18-month period.
The admission comes in response to a Freedom of Information request by Lewis PR, which handles public relations for security firm F-Secure.
Lewis said the Ministry of Defence had disciplined 10 personnel, although was unable to specify individual cases.
Are your employees leaking your sensitive data via social networks? This report from the UK should give anyone pause.
Ministry of Defence staff aren’t banned from using social networks, but Lewis pointed out that the department’s code tells employees: “Remember you are a member of HM Forces/MOD civil servant. Observe the same high standard of conduct and behaviour online as would be expected of you in your professional or personal life.”
However, F-Secure said the Ministry of Defence should do more to ensure the guidelines are adhered to.
“It’s worrying that employees in sensitive positions have been sharing confidential information via Twitter and other means,” said F-Secure’s security expert Mikko Hypponen
“They might think they are confiding in friends or family when they go on Facebook. However, the recent changes in Facebook’s privacy settings might make them disclose information to the world. This is a potential security risk.”
Source: http://www.csoonline.com/article/525613/MoD_Staff_Leak_Military_Secrets_on_Facebook_and_Twitter
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William J McBorrough is a Security Expert with many years of success Managing, Designing, and Implementing medium and large enterprise Physical and Information Technology Security Solutions. His experience spans the spectrum from small e-commerce start-ups to multi-campus state and federal agencies to global financial sector organizations. He is on the faculty of various universities including University of Maryland University College, EC-Council University, George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College where he conducts research and teach graduate and undergraduate courses relating to cybersecurity, cybercrime, cyberterrorism, and information security and assurance. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Computing Engineering with a concentration in digital networks and a Masters of Science in Information Security and Assurance. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified in Risk Information System Control (CRISC), and Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH).He is well versed in personnel, systems and network security risk management. His core competencies include Developing cost effective solutions to enable mission assurance in the following areas: Enterprise Risk Management, IT Governance, Security Organization Development, Information Security and Assurance
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