bootsontheground 08/04/09
Marines decide, "Better safe than sorry."
The U.S. Marine Corps has just announced a service-wide ban on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. In a statement released monday, the top brass explained their decision:
“These internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries,”
This is going to get interesting, especially since the Army just ordered all bases to provide access to facebook and military generals have been whole-heartedly embracing web 2.0 and social media to communicate more effectively with their troops and with the general public.
There are two competing needs in today's military. The first is to take and hold ground in the media battlespace (after all, the Taliban fights very well in the media) and to preserve operational security. Both are important, and they don't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive. But for now, the Marines have decided that discretion is the better part of valor - until they have time to make sure the enemy can't exploit the web to do harm to military computer networks.
We'll see how long the generals can stand to be unwired. As for your average Marine slugging it out with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, I'm not sure today's announcement will be that big a deal - they have more important things to worry about.
“These internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries,”
This is going to get interesting, especially since the Army just ordered all bases to provide access to facebook and military generals have been whole-heartedly embracing web 2.0 and social media to communicate more effectively with their troops and with the general public.
There are two competing needs in today's military. The first is to take and hold ground in the media battlespace (after all, the Taliban fights very well in the media) and to preserve operational security. Both are important, and they don't necessarily have to be mutually exclusive. But for now, the Marines have decided that discretion is the better part of valor - until they have time to make sure the enemy can't exploit the web to do harm to military computer networks.
We'll see how long the generals can stand to be unwired. As for your average Marine slugging it out with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, I'm not sure today's announcement will be that big a deal - they have more important things to worry about.