WorkLight launches platform to secure enterprise UK Facebook users

• 
  Antony Savvas
• Published: 20 Feb 2008 14:20

WorkLight has launched a system to secure the use of Facebook social networking in enterprise environments.

The UK is host to the highest number of active Facebook users outside the US, totalling an estimated 8 million users, according to Facebook.

WorkLight says WorkBook allows safe and effective use of Facebook at work, addressing concerns among CIOs that consumer-based social networking sites are a threat to their business.

The WorkBook application, previously only available in the US, combines all the capabilities of Facebook with all the controls of a corporate environment.

With WorkBook, employees can securely use Facebook to:

* Find colleagues by name, location, department, project and area of expertise

* Collaborate with peers using familiar Facebook capabilities

* View up-to-date, corporate-specific information about peers such as status, department, role and location

* Receive general and personalised company news directly from a Facebook news feed

* Create groups around shared interest areas and work-related projects

* Setup Q&A forums with colleagues to get quick answers

In addition, WorkBook provides businesses with:

* Secure provisioning that ensures the application can be used only by authorized employees

* Information security - corporate-related information is visible only to employees

* Compliance with existing security policies - enterprise security integration authenticates WorkBook users via corporate authentication facilities, enforces access control policies and supports Single Sign-On (SSO)

* Integration with the company's directory or applications to augment information from Facebook profiles

The WorkLight server is licensed to enterprises by yearly subscription. Pricing starts at £7.50 per user per month, with volume discount pricing available.