Will DoD take the leap to social media?

The Defense Department is at a crossroads, as social networking takes the federal government by storm. Every federal agency has jumped onto this new phenomenon, or at least put its toe into it. But not the DoD.

The issues are more complicated for the military arm of the federal government. How freely should information be shared? How well will the Pentagon cope with an open policy on information instead of a need to know one? Federal Computer Week reports that DoD expects a review to be completed soon that likely will recommend a balanced approach to using social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

Now what does that mean? You can use it sometimes and not others? You can use it on unclassified networks? Maybe you can use it until we decide you cannot?

DoD has not had a department-wide policy. And that means, depending on the military branch, there have been a wide range of rules, or a complete ban.

Attempting to completely block the technology in the DoD would be futile, says Amit Yoran, the chief executive officer of NetWitness and the former director of the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team and National Cyber Security Division of the Homeland Security Department.

"What experience has taught us in this industry is that users will bypass over-draconian and overly restrictive policies that you may impose on them," Yoran told Federal Computer Week. "It may be the users actively doing it, it may be the social media sites getting creative and finding ways to encapsulate and tunnel and do all these things that allow folks to bypass the protective measures and policies that we put in place."

For more on DoD and social networks:
- check out this Federal Computer Week article [1]