WASHINGTON, D.C. - December 17, 2009 - At the
Government 2.5 Conference this week, FaceTime Communications (www.facetime.com), the event platinum sponsor
and the leading provider of solutions enabling the safe use of Web
2.0 and Unified Communications in the enterprise, presented "Secure
and Compliant Use of Social Media for Government Agencies." Bill
Williams, Director of Federal Sales for FaceTime, outlined
challenges that government agencies face to secure their computer
networks for social media use. Williams also discussed ways they
can implement effective policies and procedures to comply with
government regulations.
Increasingly, government agencies are harnessing social media
and public networks like Twitter and Facebook to reach out to
constituents. The City of New York, for example, uses Twitter to
keep residents up to date on street closures, events, and other
issues. The challenge facing government IT professionals is how to
support these public networks securely, without opening themselves
to risks of incoming threats such as malware or viruses, or
outgoing data threats such as data leaks. Government IT managers
also need to be able to log and archive Web 2.0 content, including
IM conversations, to comply with audit regulations such as FISMA,
DIACAP, NARA, HIPAA, and others. And they may also want to impose
Internet and Web 2.0 application control. For instance, government
workers may have a legitimate need to access Facebook or want to
access social media on their own time, but it's not necessarily a
good idea to allow access to games such as Mafia Wars or
Farmville.
"Government agencies are increasingly using social media sites
and public instant messaging systems inside their firewall to
conduct government business more effectively," said Williams. "The
goal of government IT organizations shouldn't be to say 'no' to
social media web sites and just block access, but rather to
implement access in a secure fashion that eliminates threats from
viruses and malware, prevents data leaks, and enforces regulatory
compliance."
During the conference, Williams reviewed the recommendations of
the CIO Council regarding social media security, including the
development of a social media strategy and acceptable use policy,
following NIST guidelines, providing records retention in accord
with NARA, and providing specialized training to users. The CIO
Council also recommends using technology to inspect, monitor,
detect, and block traffic, and reviewing technologies for granular
control of web applications, data, and protocols.
Williams also profiled FaceTime's Unified Security Gateway and
related products that provide unified security, management, and
compliance for social media use on government networks. Social
media security needs to be supported by technology that provides
complete visibility over network traffic, as well as security by
blocking worms, viruses and malware and preventing data leaks. It
also needs to support data traffic management, including enforcing
granular policies, inserting disclaimers, and enforcing ethical
boundaries. And to support compliance, the technology needs to
provide tamper-proof archiving and auditing, and detect and prevent
data leakage.
"FaceTime's presentation focusing on the security and compliance
issues related to social media came at a perfect time within the
Government 2.5 conference this week," said Robert Fine, Founder of
Cool Blue LLC which organized the conference."We had a number of
presentations where questions arose about social media and evidence
collection related to court cases. FaceTime's product line also
addresses many of these concerns, which are going to be a core part
of our SMILE conference in April (Social Media in Law Enforcement).
FaceTime's guidance, participation, and presence at that discussion
will be critical."
For more information about FaceTime's solutions for government
IT security and compliance, visit http://www.facetime.com/solutions/complaince.aspx.
About Actiance, Inc. (Formerly FaceTime Communications, Inc.)
FaceTime Communications became Actiance, Inc on January 11, 2011 following an agreement to
transfer the FaceTime trademark to Apple.
FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of Unified Communications and Web 2.0,
including instant messaging, blogs and social networking. Ranked number one by IDC for five consecutive
years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by more than 1,500 customers for the security,
management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime supports or has strategic partnerships
with all leading IM, unified communications providers and social networks including AOL, Google, Yahoo!,
Skype, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
FaceTime is headquartered in Belmont, California. For more information visit
http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-3223.
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