CorpComms Magazine

Seventy one per cent of companies can keep tabs on employees' social media use, according to an online survey by digital security firm nCircle.

Bosses are increasingly concerned that social media use in office hours entails potential security risks as well as eating into employee working time. Almost three fifths of employers now have an official social media policy, with two in five actively prohibiting the use of social networking applications during office hours. Despite the likelihood that companies could see their activity, 46 per cent of bosses were uncertain if their employees complied with the policy.

It may then be little wonder that 73 per cent of Facebook users are sceptical about adding their bosses as friends on the site, according to the findings of another Internet security company F-Secure. But it's not just executive directors being left out in the cold - the study found Facebook users increasingly concerned with privacy across the board, with 77 per cent adjusting the their profile's privacy settings to safeguard personal information.

In light of these findings, Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle suggested a blanket approach may not be the most fruitful: 'Even though almost 40 per cent of respondents ban employee social media use, this type of policy is a knee-jerk reaction to the serious security risks associated with social media and is not necessarily effective. The real security concern when it comes to social media is what employees are divulging via their social networking activity and how that affects the security of their employer.'

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