Marines ban Facebook, MySpace amid Pentagon study

Social Networking is one of those gray areas, where IT admins, CIOs and CTOs still haven't yet decided if they are good or bad for business. There's some positive elements to them (good marketing campaigns can take advantage of them), but there's also negatives.

The Marine Corps this week, decided the bad outweights the good, and is banning its troops from going onto Facebook, MySpace and other social network sites, citing a possible security risk.

From the news report:

The corps issued an order Monday saying the ban is effective immediately on the Marine Corps computer network. It said the Internet has been used as a haven for malicious behavior, and said that using social sites can expose information to adversaries.

The Associated Press has learned that the move is part of a larger Pentagon review. Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn last week ordered a review of both the threats and benefits of using social networking — and asked it be done by the end of the month.

The order doesn't effect Marines' private use of such networks on personal computers outside of their jobs.

This recent move should remind IT admins to look at their policy around social networking and make a decision one way or the other.