I have three children in their young twenties. I see first hand how they use the Internet.
Social networking has a big roll. Facebook tends to dominate for them more so than other social network applications. They use P2P applications for their music and videos. My sons use their Playstation and Xbox to access Internet tools, applications, opponents. They use their mobile phones constantly — texting and accessing Web site for instant access to whatever information they are in need of. They email some, never use instant messaging, prefer texting. They watch videos — stream or via DVDs — on their laptops. They watch some TV but not too much — mostly sports and comedies. They are playing with Twitter — following a few of their sport or media icons. They are typical American twenty-somethings using so-called Web 2.0 technology.
This is what they are use to. When they get their college degree and start their first real jobs, how will their new employers deal with their habits? Will they block Facebook? Twitter? Why? Security issues? Productivity issues? How will they circumvent the control? Will they circumvent them?
Jim Routh and Gary McGraw coined a term (I’ll give them credit) lifestyle hackers. They have described this in their CSO magazine article Lifestyle Hackers. You might not be able to craft a document and listen to hip hop or rock at the same time, but these youngsters can; they do. These young employees are experts at multitasking. If security policies “cramp their style,” they may just figure out ways to circumvent it. Their intent is not malicious.
I remember when telecommuting started. Managers were reluctant to give up “control.” They wanted/needed to make sure “their employees” were working. We as a society got over that. Millions of people work some or all the time from home. I spent fifteen years working in either a remote office or home office. I can tell you that for certain jobs, remote workers are much more productive than headquarter-based jobs.
Social norms change. Security personal need to understand the entire landscape before saying NO. Technology is good. Web 2.0 has some great things. Let’s figure out to address this in a manner that is win-win. It does not need to be a zero-sum game. The winners will be those that figure out how create a non-zero-sum game.