Palo Alto Networks, a network security company, now makes it possible for companies to implement 'read-only' Facebook (News - Alert) policies in the workplace using next-generation firewalls.

 

New, finer-grained control over who uses the popular social networking application and for what purposes means companies can enable Facebook for employees that need it for their jobs, while limiting its functionality for other workers who use it primarily for personal reasons.

 

Rene Bonvanie, vice president of Worldwide Marketing at Palo Alto (News - Alert) Networks said, 'Our message to IT professionals is 'yes, you can. Yes, you can safely enable applications like Facebook in your workplace. Yes, you can reap the rewards of social networking while mitigating the risks. Our next-gen firewall is the great enabler of Enterprise 2.0 apps.'

 

This kind of granular control over the use of Facebook - by user, group, content or even time of day is unique to Palo Alto Networks' next-generation firewall. As a result, IT security managers are better equipped to prevent leaks of corporate data, improve worker productivity, and reduce security threats such as malware and viruses that increasingly use Facebook and other applications to invade the enterprise.

 

For example, a manufacturing organization where certain members of the marketing group have 'read-only' access to Facebook to monitor a competitor's social marketing efforts - without being able to post personal status updates or comment on friends' updates. The corporate communications team might have full use of Facebook, including applications and chat, in order to communicate with journalists. The legal team may have no access to Facebook, while the human resources staff has complete access but only between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.

 

The new 'read-only' Facebook functionality is available now at no cost to Palo Alto Networks customers.

 

In related news, a recent TMCnet article looks at whether does broadband 'causes' development and looks at the implication that Web usage drives success.