(the mash) Lets not also forget about bandwidth usage that could strain a company’s network. Within ScanSafe’s own clientèle, about 32% of its customers block access to social networks, with MySpace, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn being the networks that are being blocked the most.
Is your company blocking you from social networks? If so, you might want to consider doing your social networking from home. You really don’t need to spend more than an hour a day networking any way. Thirty minutes before you leave the house each day and thirty minutes in the evening should be enough to send messages and respond to others, add friends to your network, and browse for new and interesting items. Whether you prefer Facebook, LinkedIn, or MySpace, networking is a useful activity, but your company has legitimate security concerns. If networking is an absolutely essential activity for your position then maybe you can talk to your boss about having a dedicated workstation just for social networking.
If your company has several employees who need to network as a part of their duties, perhaps you could set up a workstation just for social networking and make it a shared workstation. Schedule the time for each employee who must use that network and protect that workstation with its own firewall, shutting off access to the rest of your company’s network and resources. Unless your employees need those while networking, that workstation doesn’t need to be tied in to everything else and by cutting it off from the network you maintain your security.
