The U.S. Department of Defense is studying the threats and benefits of soldiers and government officials using social-network Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace and mini-blogging sites such as Twitter. The DoD said it is working on a policy for the sites.
Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn III set a memo to all branch secretaries directing the DoD’s CIO to present the secretary of defense with an analysis no later than Aug. 31. Policies for the Web sites must be completed no later than Sept. 30.
“These tools are proving valuable in such areas as recruitment, public affairs, and quality of life for our military personnel as well as sharing information with allies, coalition partners, and military families,” Lynn wrote. “However, as with any Internet-based capabilities, there are implementation challenges and operational risks that must be understood and mitigated.”
Currently, commanders in all branches of the military are responsible for deciding whether soldiers can access and post information to the Web sites, according to Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh, a DoD spokesperson.
“Commanders at all levels can make restrictions based on their concern of bandwidth and security,” Butterbaugh said. “The effort is now to pull together all the issues, and it is clearly something that is valuable to communications with family — but risks come with it, too, such as security and hacking.”
While individual commanders have the discretion to block or allow the use of such sites in any particular situation, the U.S. Marine Corps has banned Marines from using government computers to access such Web sites.
Butterbaugh wouldn’t say whether a uniform policy would trump the decision by the USMC, but he did say a uniform policy could include training in the use of such Web sites.
“I don’t know what the specifics will say,” he said. “There are different…