Corporate Social Networking: Risks and Opportunities

Social networks have seen an explosive growth over the last few years, with the most popular online services totaling over half a billion users. These networks have started permeating several aspects of our daily lives: for example by changing the ways we communicate with our friends and family, share media and organize events. Popular social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter now account for over half of the content shared on the web. Norwegian businesses are taking note, and are slowly but surely starting to embrace these platforms. Security professionals are now facing the challenge of finding new ways to deal with this topic. The main goal is to gain from the opportunities of such technologies while minimizing the impact on information security. This thesis examines what impact Social Networking has on the security policies and culture of corporations, what business models can be successfully facilitated, and how people can be integrated with the least amount of risk. We raise questions regarding current and potential, future business models, security risks and the use and implementation of security policies and acceptable-use guidelines. This thesis also presents case studies and interviews with key personnel where we analyze the successes and failures of different businesses that have started using social networks for business purposes. The final result of this research is concrete recommendations as to how and why Norwegian businesses should start planning in order to properly manage this disruptive technology