ESN more secure than regular social networking

Yet after almost every major social networking site - including Facebook and Twitter - was hacked into earlier this year, resulting in thousands of users' passwords and other personal information becoming compromised; security is rapidly becoming a major concern. Locally, Facebook users are facing a new threat. In late April, it was revealed that South African Facebook profiles were being cloned and used to try to solicit money from the victim's friends.

"In light of those recent hacking incidents targeting so many of those major social networking sites, and the cloning of local users' profiles, business owners are realising that social networking carries inherent risks that can hold dire consequences for businesses and put their company's data at risk. In fact, a recent poll conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group found that 77% of security professionals believe that employee access to social networking sites increases the likelihood of an advanced, persistent threat or other sophisticated malware attack on the organisation," said Dayle Wheeler, MD of Modern Business and founder of "ideas", a unique social networking platform for companies.

"The hackers and scammers are ruthless. Anyone can be a victim at any time. Just because your business is small doesn't mean that you are too insignificant for them. In fact, small businesses are favoured targets as they often skimp on IT security. That is why it is far more advisable for companies to switch over to enterprise social networking (ESN) to share ideas."

ESN holds many benefits

Wheeler explained that ESN holds many benefits for a company. "While it would not be completely accurate to describe it as 'Facebook for the workplace', ESN does harness similar qualities, offering that same kind of interaction and connection with others that have made the social networking site such a hit with people around the world. In this case, you are not interacting with friends and family, but with colleagues.

An ESN is an internal platform where all employees can contribute ideas, interact with each other and sometimes even with the company's customer base. In addition, it allows them to collaborate on work projects, assignments and concepts. It has already been proven that access to ESN boosts worker morale and increases productivity. But, aside from that, it is great from a security point of view too, because it allows companies to exercise more control over what information can be shared."

Such governance is to ensure that company secrets remain safe. In order to accomplish this, Wheeler suggested that employers educate employees about security risks and also enforce clear policies about what can and can't be discussed. Employees will then have to comply with those policies. "These rules can be tailored so that they might differ for departments, or vary from employee to employee, depending on what their role within the company is."

He concluded that it is, therefore, crucial to select an ESN where implementing and monitoring such compliance policies will be much easier. "For instance, the 'ideas' ESN platform offers employers far more control and security than Facebook and Twitter do, as it runs via the company's intranet and is internally managed and monitored by the company itself."