Join Me on the CSO Forum on LinkedIn

A couple of columns ago, I wrote about the challenges that organizations are facing from the advent of social networking. By now, most of you are aware of the risks that social networking poses to your organization: malware intrusion, intellectual property leakage, disclosure of personally identifying information, etc. But my message to you today is that social media isn’t all gloom and doom.

As some of you know, over the past several years, CSO has launched groups at various social networking sites, including LinkedIn and Facebook. We did this because we saw more and more of our readers experimenting in this media as they sought to share knowledge and learn best practices while operating in a trusted online environment. We also did this because younger workers are entering the workforce and—surprise—they rely heavily upon the online communities that these platforms provide, for both their personal and professional lives.

So far, the CSO Forum on LinkedIn seems to hold the most promise. As I write this column, the forum has 500 members, many of whom are participating in active discussions on a regular basis, as they try to address the challenges they have in their organizations and share their own best practices with their peers and fellow CSO Forum members.

I’ve had the privilege this year to meet face-to-face with more than 450 security and technology executives across North America, and social networking has certainly become one of the hot topics of discussion—not just the challenges social media presents to their organizations, but also how they can benefit from it. There is a general understanding that there is real value to be gained from the sharing of information in a gated community, and while this same sharing of information happens at conferences and roundtables, the trick has always been figuring out how to extend that community beyond the dates that define the boundary of a conference or event. The CSO’s need for information is not defined by time, but rather by immediacy.

If you haven’t had a chance to visit the CSO Forum on LinkedIn, I urge you to give it a try. The group is focused on practicing security leaders; pushing products or services is strictly verboten.

I think you’ll find it to be a valuable resource that will continue to return value to you as you encounter the challenges yet to come.

To join the CSO Forum, click the link above or go to www.LinkedIn.com, select Search Groups in the search box, and enter “CSO Forum.” We’ll see you there.