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Washington Pulse
Cybersecurity and Social Networking Can Coexist, Says Defense Dept. Study
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By Sandra I. Erwin
Fears of cyber-attacks should not keep the Defense Department from embracing social networking technologies, says a recent report from the National Defense University.
The benefits that Web 2.0 social networking tools offer outweigh the risks, said Mark Drapeau, associate research fellow at NDU’s Center for Technology and National Security Policy.
The center recently published a study titled “Social Software and National Security: An Initial Net Assessment.” Drapeau co-authored the study with Linton Wells, a former chief information officer at the Department of Defense.
Social tools are about connecting people and information “in ways that you really can't do with email or some more traditional forms of communication,” Drapeau said on a Pentagon webcast.
The Defense Department is so large and widespread that it needs these technologies to reach its own employees and partners, he said. Protecting networks from intrusions is important, but it should not be a reason to not take advantage of these technologies, Drapeau said.
“The focus has to be not so much on information assurance -- which is largely overlapping with information security and computer security -- but it should be mission assurance,” he said. “It should be about completing the mission and taking on a certain amount of risk, if need be, to get the job done.”
While cybersecurity is a “serious and important issue, completing your mission is a more serious and important issue, if you will,” said Drapeau. The same reasoning would apply when the Navy builds a submarine. “You don't build a boat never expecting water to get into it. You build it with certain safety features and contraptions and bays that you can lock off or shut down because you expect some degree of water to get into the hull,” he said. Similarly, “you need to think a little bit more about information security like a ship where some water can be allowed into the hull as long as the ship stays afloat.”
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