MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- According to Marine Administrative Message 181/10, the ban an Internet social networking sites on the Marine Corps enterprise network has been cancelled.
The MARADMIN establishes the authoritative policy for access to Internet-based capabilities from the MCEN and cancels MARADMIN 458/09, the original ban on usage.
It effectively combines all orders and directives related to the subject and provides the basic guidance and expectations of all service members using the MCEN.
“We are relying on supervisors to set policies within their sections for appropriate use,” said Staff Sgt. Ryan Chilson, information assurance manager for Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni.
As of right now, there are no set rules or regulations for the use of the Internet-based capabilities, but every service member should exercise appropriate use of the systems.
One of the benefits of this new MARADMIN is the ease of obtaining certain information for certain jobs. At the same time, the station only has a certain amount of Internet bandwidth to work with.
With more users using social net-working sites, the increased demand can slow down the speed of the entire system.
“Now that we have all this additional traffic, expect to see it take a lot longer to pull large e-mails and large documents from the share drive,” said Chilson.
Sucking up the bandwidth is not the biggest problem that can arise from this new MARADMIN.
“Social networking sites are one of the biggest attack vectors for hackers out there,” said Chilson. “It’s extremely simple to hack into someone’s MySpace or Facebook account.”
A possible scenario that could happen is opening a video from a friend and discovering it is really something a hacker placed.
Once opened, the malicious software could give the attacker a back door into the network. Social networking sites are a luxury for service members to use, not abuse.
Government hardware and software is for official use and limited personal use per MARADMIN 541/99. Personal use of any hardware and software should be approved by supervisors and not affect the performance of official duties, overburden systems or reflect adversely on the Marine Corps.
For additional information on MARADMIN 181/10 or any related MARADMINS, go to www. marines.mil and search MARADMINS.