Social networking has taken the Internet by storm, both for personal use and for business. If you haven't started social networking at your office, your employees are probably clamoring for it, as a way to collaborate at work and reach out to clients and customers.

A San Diego State University professor of social marketing, William Baker, recently surveyed 1,600 executives and his findings were quite intriguing. The firms that relied heavily on external social networks scored 24 percent higher on a measure of radical innovation than companies that do not use the technology to their advantage.

Networking, the professor found, can help companies find the right people to hire and market products, and even help find the right manufacturer. The social networking, he said, has resulted in linking up with unexpected collaborators, viral marketing campaigns and much more.

But there are warnings that social networks may not always be a boost to business.

Look at how a denial of service attack recently took down Twitter and Facebook. Ask yourself whether your company has sufficient firewalls to prevent intrusions. And think carefully if you have enough security on your company's network to handle bugs stemming from social network sites.

In July, security firm Sophos accused social networking sites of concentrating on growth without properly protecting their users from Internet threats. It warned that Web 2.0 websites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace will become the main battleground for malware, identity thieves and spammers.

At a security conference this past winter in Washington, D.C., two researchers said social networking sites are perfect targets for the bad guys. They are meant to get as many users as possible in one place and on one platform, and then they allow those users to easily upload and exchange pictures, text, music and other content with little effort. It's almost a perfect storm.

It's pretty clear that there is a danger in embracing social networking without asking questions about security. At a time when your systems are being assaulted on a regular basis, do you really need another unsecured tool to worry about? The best-known social networking virus, Koobface, has been finding its way onto corporate computers. You may be one of the unlucky firms to have hosted it.

Is social networking getting too dangerous to use? We hope not. We see this as the next great chapter of Internet growth. But you have to be certain of a few things: Make sure your staff is properly trained, warnings should be issued regarding dangerous viruses, make sure passwords are safe and secure, and don't let your workers play around.

That's the only way that social networking can become part of your business plan and a way to engage workers to do better work and deliver better service to your customers. - Judi