With the advent of social media, personal and professional identities are beginning to blend together. I am linked, I tweet and am face booked. I have my own space; I can Skype and even FaceTime. By accessing all these sites, my professional and personal lives seem to be getting in the way of each other. In fact, my personal and professional identities are melding. My friends know what I am doing at work, and my work associates can view my personal life. LinkedIn associates can find me on Facebook, and my Facebook friend reach out to me in LinkedIn. My social friends now know what organizations I belong to professionally and vice versa. Pictures of social events can be seen by work associates, and my Tweets appear on my Facebook and LinkedIn pages.
As a security professional, the blending of personal and professional identities is a concern. It creates new risks for both the individual and corporation identities. The combined social networks expose our personal lives to our corporate regulators, and our personal contacts and associations expose corporate entities to virtual risks related to passwords, proprietary information and network attacks.