U.S. Marines Banned From Using Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace

“These internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries,” stated a Marine Corps order earlier this week. “The very nature of SNS [social network sites] creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts OPSEC [operational security], COMSEC [communications security], [and] personnel… at an elevated risk of compromise.”

The U.S. Marines have been banned from using Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.  The ban will last about a year due to network concerns.  Often times worms and Trojan viruses spread through social media websites and get passed along.  The Marines does not want any of these viruses disrupting their networks or accessing files that are confidential.

The Marines banning social media was part of a response by the U.S. Strategic Command.  The Strategic Command division was considering a ban that is as wide as the whole Department of Defense.

[via Wired]

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