The advent of social media platforms is continually transforming the way organizations interact with customers, build brands, and engage with the world.  While certain organizations have eagerly participated in social media as a means to garner long-term marketing benefits, other organizations are hesitant to address employee interaction in the new interconnected world of social media.  However, simply looking the other way is no longer a viable option.  The statistics are staggering and can’t be ignored:  Facebook with over 500 million users, Twitter with nearly 200 million registered accounts, and LinkedIn with 100 million users.

This is a primer on how to help your organization defend itself by identifying the potential risks associated with employee use of social media, providing recommendations on how to mitigate those risks, and sharing Cisco’s approach.

Pitfalls of Social Media

Read More »

Tags: Governance, policy, privacy, social media

***Link Updated: June 2012***

In early May we published our “Cisco Social Media Policy” for our employees to read, acknowledge and if applicable inculcate into their daily regime as employees of Cisco.  An internal Governance Board created this document to empower the employee’s engagement rather than harness as the employee traversed through the social media and social network landscape.  Does it answer all the questions imaginable, no, it does, however, provide the necessary guidance to allow any employee to navigate and escalate any questions which may arise during the many daily social media journeys.

Many ask, what’s inside a Cisco social media policy document and why do you have one?  As stated above, the guide is there to help employees navigate social networks, as the employee engages the many audiences present within these social networks.

At Cisco we are a community that embraces transparency, authenticity and openness.  We encourage our employees to be a part of social networks, both internal to Cisco, as well as, external to Cisco.  Our employees may use social networking sites while at work to conduct business.  Cisco does not block access to social networking sites – we believe in empowering the workforce and instilling trust in our employees to work responsibly.

Read More »

Tags: Governance, policy, social media, transparency

Tablets and mobile devices are driving massive change in the IT world. We are seeing a few key shifts that need to be addressed:

The user to device ratio has changed, while IT resources stay the same:

• Early 1990s: Each user has one device on a wired connection.
• Late 1990s: Users have gone mobile with laptops and other local devices.
• Today: Employees require anytime, anywhere access with multiple devices per person.

IT is struggling to secure, manage and support employee-owned devices in the workplace, bringing it’s own set of challenges:

• Classifying managed vs. unmanaged endpoints.
• Ensuring proper identification and authentication of devices.
• Associate each user with the proper host.

It all comes down to this: when your employee brings an iPad into work, how can you centralize access and policy management, without adding IT resources?

Join our session to learn how the Cisco Identity Services Engine and Cisco Prime Network Control System offer the solution. Timothy Abbott, Senior Network Engineer, CCNA, CCNP will be on-site to present a case study from his experience at the San Antonio Water System.

We hope to see you Wednesday May 11th, 11:15am -- 12:00pm in the Mandalay Bay L conference room. Learn more.

Tags: iPad, mobile devices, network, policy, security, tbalet, wi-fi, wifi, wireless

Mark Twain once wrote, “Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it.” Security policy is a lot like that. Creating a security policy is at the top of the list for anyone looking to really secure their network. But the devil is in the details.

Among the things a security policy needs to cover are:

• All users
• All physical and virtual devices
• All access methods
• All resource classifications and locations
• All compliance requirements
• All of the OSI layers, from the physical layer up the stack to the application layer
• AND the policy needs to be applied uniformly across the entire distributed enterprise

Read More »

Tags: identity, Identity Services Engine, ISE, policy, risk, security

Furthering its leadership in networking, last week Cisco introduced new security,  management, and video solutions to its Borderless Networks portfolio to help information technology departments more efficiently manage the proliferation of mobile devices, ongoing changes in workforce habits, and the impact of video on the network.

The innovations include:

- Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) for policy management
- Cisco Prime for Enterprise to help organizations more effectively manage their network and network services
- Cisco Medianet and video conferencing to optimize video delivery.  Highlighting Cisco’s commitment to on-going innovation in its core technologies, this announcement included details of integrated video conferencing on the ISR G2.

To get an update on the full announcement, please watch this short video featuring Marie Hattar, VP of Borderless Networks Marketing and Ross Fowler, VP of Borderless Networks Sales here.

For the full press release, please click here.

Tags: Borderless Networks, ISE, ISR, ISR G2, management, policy, video