"Loose tweets sink fleets" is a new twist on a familiar saying. It is also borrowed from the Navy Command Social Media Handbook issued October 15, 2010. The Navy appreciates that social media is widely used, and that a ban on social media is not the answer. Trying to turn a blind eye to the use of social media, or banning its use in the workplace is naive. Whether they are doing it at work or in their free time, people who hold security clearances, or have access to classified or sensitive information, are using Facebook to connect with friends who may be one to three degrees removed. They are connecting with other professionals on Linkedin, and sometimes tweeting about their every day activities on Twitter.
Any shred of doubt that your employees are using social media
should be quickly dispelled by the following. Facebook fan pages
for the military services and defense contractors number in the
thousands. Some of the more popular pages include the National
Guard (610,450+ fans) Marines (436,000+), US Marines in Afghanistan
(20,450+), Navy (222,000+), Northrop Grumman Corporation (6,790+),
and BAE Systems Land & Armaments (2,160+).
The issuance of the Navy Social Media Handbook is a good reminder
that government contractors should include a social media policy in
their employment manuals. Because government contracts may involve
work on a classified program with employees holding security
clearances, a "cookie cutter" social media policy is not
enough.
The social media guidelines that we have discussed in "Why Every Business Should Have A Social Media
Policy" are a good starting point. However, there are
some additional guidelines that a government contractor may want to
include in its social media policy.
First, employees should be encouraged to use the highest privacy
settings on Facebook. And, they should appreciate that even
"private" information may be made public. There are
various back door methods for other people to have access to their
information. Comments on a friend's status update are viewable
by anyone who is friends with that mutual friend, or anyone else
who happens to comment on their post. Also, if you have a Facebook
friend who plays one of several popular Zynga game applications
(i.e., Farmville, Mafia Wars), then Zynga may have gained
access to your information in addition to the friend who is using
its application. Courts are also ordering the disclosure of
Facebook posts and activity in more and more legal disputes.
Second, it is recommended that employees friend only people they
actually know. This applies in particular to employees who have
anything in their profile (including fan pages they have liked)
that gives an indication that they work for a defense contractor.
Other countries spy on the United States, and may use social media
to do it. There was a widely reported case in the 1990s of a
country allegedly stealing U.S. nuclear design information. Among
other things, the country reportedly solicited answers to seemingly
benign questions in the context of scientific symposiums and
interactions with U.S. scientists, and then pieced together a
highly confidential, U.S. nuclear program. Put simply, it is easy
for someone to pose on social media as someone else, and elicit
information that may possibly lead to, or result in, an inadvertent
disclosure of classified information.
And, finally, successful completion of a government contract may be
jeopardized if employees working on it are at risk of losing their
security clearances through their uninformed use of social media. A
useful starting point is the Questionnaire for National Security
Positions, SF-86, and cautioning employees to be mindful of the
following questions: (1) having to list foreign nationals with whom
the employee has had "close and/or continuing contact"
within the last 7 years which may possibly be interpreted to
include social media contacts; and (2) describing all instances
outside official U.S. government business in which the employee was
asked to provide advice even informally by any foreign government
official or agency. Linkedin discussion groups are one area for
example where someone could inadvertently participate in a work
related discussion without realizing that the discussion was
initiated by someone working on behalf of a foreign spy
organization. Social media does not have country boundaries. For
example, the government of North Korea has a Twitter account with
over 4,600 followers.
Whether or not company employees have access to social media at
work, a government contractor should have a social media policy
that addresses the unique nature of its business. A sound policy
coupled with training on the informed use of social media makes
good business sense for any government contractor.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.