Opinion

Meeting Security on Facebook

By Bob Bragdon, Publisher, CSO

February 28, 2008 — CSO — Do social networking sites scare you as much as they scare me? When I see the types of things that some people put on their MySpace or Facebook pages, I cringe and remind myself to keep an eye on what my daughter is doing online.

That being said, this is not something that I can ignore when it comes to my day job at CSO.

For the past five years, CSO has been looking for new and innovative ways to help security leaders connect and share best practices and knowledge in a safe environment. Primarily, we have done this through our live events, like the upcoming CSO Perspectives Conference being held this March 16-18 in Atlanta (www.CSOPerspectives.com). Events where you can all gather, learn and share with your peers to become better security leaders. We've also been looking for innovative ways to extend the value of our live events to those who attend them. Despite my trepidations about Facebook, I think it may be an answer we have been searching for.

Last month, CSO launched the CSO group on Facebook in addition to adding groups around a number of our events. We have been slowly populating the CSO group with content and members, and as our numbers grow, it will be interesting to see how its use evolves.

In many ways I feel as though I just stepped out of a time machine. Despite the fact that I have spent the past 15 years addressing technology issues and consider myself somewhat of an expert, I pretty much missed the emergence of today's social networking environments. I am aware, however, of the concerns that many of you share about the types of risks these can pose to your organizations. As the old saying goes, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." There is no better way to learn about these sites than to participate in them.

Check out the CSO group on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9524595762, or go to Facebook.com and search for "CSO" under Groups. You'll need to be registered on Facebook to get to the group and then you'll need to request permission to join. Those requests will come directly to me and I'll add you to the group. Let us know how we can improve what we do there.

Bob Bragdon, bbragdon@cxo.com