Controls for Social Media

By Stephanie Jordan
in

Companies are increasingly seeing social media traffic on their networks, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Skype, and other unsecured outlets that present the potential for malware attacks and data leaks. This week FaceTime Communications and Blue Coat Systems announced that they have partnered to provide more granular controls of Web applications, enabling enterprises to adopt flexible policies.

The companies say the objective is to enable safe social media access without blocking content by offering granular management of blog posts, wikis, Webmail, and any number of social media conversations to prevent data leaks or the introduction of malware and viruses.

“Web 2.0 applications and social networking malware pose a growing threat to corporate networks, and IT managers are looking for new ways to filter and control Web 2.0 and Internet applications rather than simply blocking access,” says Kailash Ambwani, president and CEO of FaceTime. “By partnering with Blue Coat, we deliver a winning solution for customers who want to embrace new communications channels in a way that secures their networks from threats and data leakage.”

The ability to monitor and apply consistent policies for Web 2.0 communications is important for corporate compliance reasons as well as security.

 

Published February 11, 2010