Yammer security sub-standard says US Veterans' Affairs Dept America's Veterans Affairs inspector general has sideswiped the department for what it says is “improper” use of Yammer, Microsoft's inside-the-firewall Twitter clone. In what looks like a mistaken enthusiasm for cool-tools, the US Department of Veterans' Affairs decided to start using Yammer, an "enterprise social network," …
...users were unable to remove the Online Now instant messaging feature...
The appropriate response would have been to uninstall the application (coincidentally removing the Online Now feature), to block access to the Yammer site at the FW, and to sanction anyone who reinstalled the stuff. The CIO should have a really good idea as to what is permitted on their systems. He should have been thrown under the proverbial bus, not sideswiped.
This thing should be removed from servers and PC's. Even though it's "inside the firewall", does it phone home like a lot of other software? I'd say it was a good thing the CIO resigned otherwise firing would be appropriate. And unless there's strict guidelines and possibly monitoring of logs, this thing should never be allowed back.
I'm wondering what will happen when the department upgrades to Win10. I'd almost bet that will cause some real headaches when it phones home.
The word "Yammer" is pronounced the same way as "jammer" in Dutch, which means "unfortunate".
That's the second time I catch Microsoft Netherlands being too honest for its own good (the last time they used an old, repainted tram to signify Windows 10).
Have they been infiltrated by Linux sympathisers?
:)
The VA Technical Reference Model shows it as being approved for use.
We seem to have been infected with Yammer via Office 365 - so nothing inside the firewall, just a website where people can post junk. Rather like Facebook and Twitter, but with far fewer users... (In our department, we just use those two free options for everything: nothing is "sensitive", and we generally want to keep in contact with former staff and students who don't have current credentials too, which Yammer seems to miss.)
Management has bought into it, though, so we periodically get posts from them bringing the latest nasty shock - erm, corporate strategy. Other than that, you can load it up to watch the digital tumbleweed blowing.
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