No More Social Netwoking For Nations Heroes

The Department of Defense will conduct an overall review of the security implications of allowing members of the military to interact with social networks. In the meantime, rules are inconsistent. Marines have been banned from using military networks to access the sites, while the Army gets to tweet at will.

The U.S. Marine Corps has banned service members from using military computers to access social networking sites, and the Department of Defense is reviewing the services to see if they pose too great a security threat to allow.

Such sites are popular with young service members who want to keep in touch with friends and family at home, but the Marine Corps' chief information officer, Brig. Gen. George J. Allen, said in a memo issuing the ban Tuesday that such sites create "a larger attack and exploitation window" and increase the risk that service members will share information that should be kept under wraps.
The order, which expires in one year unless renewed or supplanted by other guidance, involves all social networking sites, including Facebook , MySpace and Twitter . It carves out room for exceptions to the policy based on operational needs, but calls for an extensive review process before such authorization would be granted. The policy does not ban Marines from using the services on personal computers.
The DoD review will address the security risks of social networking sites, as well as the value they provide in helping the agency communicate, according to statements posted to the agency's Web site. A new policy could be approved by October.

Source : ECT News Network