Twitter - the New Phenomenon

Twitter is a social networking and micro blogging service that allows you to answer the question, "What are you doing?" by sending short text messages 140 characters in length, which are called "tweets", to others, which are called "followers". Users can send and receive tweets through instant messaging, cell phones and the web.

Although Twitter was originally intended for communication among individuals, many organizations have begun to actively participate by tweeting or listening or a combination of both. Some organizations such as Starbucks, Samsung and Home Depot are using Twitter as a marketing or public relations tool. Others are letting their employees tweet to enhance the organization's reputation. Some organizations like universities are using Twitter internally to share ideas or to communicate updates. Yet, others aren't actively participating in tweeting but they are simply "listening" or keeping track of what's being said about the organization or its industry.

As this communication tool increase in popularity, let's exercise best practices while using Twitter in order to minimize security risks.

1. Become as knowledgeable and savvy with Twitter and its associated tools as you are with other communication tools in order to protect yourself. 
2. Define the purpose you are using Twitter in order to maximize your time and efficiency.
3. Consider the audience you are engaging with and how you wish to engage in order to gain more from the experience.
4. Make the decision to separate personal from professional interaction.
5. Manage yourself because Twitter is addictive and it is easy to get lost or distracted.
6. Remember that Twitter does have security bugs and is not enterprise-ready.
7. Consider setting updates to "private" for security reasons.
8. Be cautious with your login information, always sign out of your account and log off of the computer.
9. Take precautions when using Twitter's third-party tools because they will have full access to your Twitter account once the login credentials are provided.
10. Remember that you can possibly be exposed to phishing scams or viruses through Twitter's TinyURLs.

For more tips about protecting yourself on social networking sites, please visit OnGuard Online.gov.