Technology research firm Gartner, Inc., US, has announced that fewer than 30 percent of large organisations will block employee access to social media sites by 2014, compared with 50 percent in 2010. The number of organisations blocking access to all social media is dropping by around 10 percent a year.
Gartner said that social media environments included mechanisms to collect, process, share and store a more complete range of identity data than do corporate Identity & Access Management (IAM) systems. They enable a more complete view of identity, one that extends beyond the bounds of organisations. For IAM managers, this is both a threat and an opportunity, it is observed. Identity data and social media platforms can expose organisations and users to a wide variety of security threats, but organisations can also use this identity data to improve support for their own IAM practices and the ambitions of business stakeholders.
Gartner identified three significant impacts of social media on IAM. These include personal trust misaligned with corporate trust; public content supporting identity intelligence; and identity data being leveraged for IAM.
Andrew Walls, research vice president at Gartner, will speak on the impact of social media on IAM at the Gartner Identity & Access Management Summit 2012. The Summit, which will take place on March 12-13 in London, will explore the future of IAM technologies and the changing market landscape. It is expected to help organisations promote desirable business outcomes, improve identity-relevant service levels, and satisfy growing regulatory and compliance imperatives.
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