The Forum’s approach was supported by a number of key focus areas such as defining a workable definition of compliance for Web 2.0 activities; consideration of Web 2.0 training and awareness issues as they relate to business value, risk, and best practice; defining the business requirements for Web 2.0 tools in the enterprise; and taking into consideration how the use of Web 2.0 facilities will affect the mobile workforce.
Security, and in particular information security, as it relates to all aspects of business systems, has already become a major issue for organizations as they struggle to understand who is doing what with the data that they take in, store, and are responsible for protecting.
Added to this, the latest set of issues that CIO- and CSO-level IT executives are being asked to deal with involves the use of consumer-based technologies that are already making their presence felt in the workplace. From a positive standpoint, industry experts are already identifying future business benefits that could accrue from the use of such technology; however, positioning it as potentially one of the most important corporate IT trends for the foreseeable future, as some have, may be an overestimation.
From a security and protection viewpoint, the initial Web 2.0 issues revolve around permissions, usage, and control. Further usage issues may revolve around the changing dynamics of the workforce, i.e. it becoming younger and more technology-savvy. Certainly, most organizations now employ staff that make everyday use of a variety of mobile devices; utilize RSS facilities; have personalized homepages; and spend time interacting via social networks, instant messaging, blogs, and wikis. However, this is not directly related to a youth culture within the workforce; it is more a generational issue as new workers are employed that have grown up with leading-edge consumer technology at their everyday beck and call.
The Secure Enterprise 2.0 Forum featured discussions that sought to bring clarity to the promises and business issues that surround the availability and use of consumer-originated technology products in the workplace. This initial session had the basic goal of getting end-users, vendors, consultants, and all other interested parties involved, and to this extent it appears to have had some success. Future gatherings will need to focus on the real issues such as usage safeguards and enterprise protection, as the use of rich web-enabled tools further opens up the opportunities for users to make heavier demands on corporate IT resources and for the distribution of even more potent forms of malware.
Source: OpinionWire by Butler Group (www.butlergroup.com)
