I know it sounds bad, but they are really right, remember the flying penises incident that happened to news.com? The whole world is pretty much unmoderated, so, when creating sims, businesses haven’t locked them down like they should have, and its not because it’s hard to do, you just need to check a couple check boxes and you are a heck of a lot more secure as far as griefers and other drive by types are concerned. The education you get when you come into Second Life is limited, although they have made it better with the island, but building a sim or even a home is a lot more complicated that just navigating SL. So, most businesses should consult with someone before they launch anything in Second Life.

Companies that are sensitive to brand issues, as well as social and ethical positioning, must exercise particular caution in uncontrolled virtual worlds, such as Linden Lab’s Second Life, and should consider more heavily moderated, targeted alternatives, such as There, Kaneva and Activeworlds, Gartner analysts advised.

“The risks enterprises face as a result of their involvement in virtual worlds are real and can be significant. They shouldn’t be ignored — but neither should the potential opportunities and benefits that arise from using these new environments for corporate collaboration and communications,” said Steve Prentice, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. Source: Second Life a security risk for businesses: Gartner

Don’t believe for a second that anything you say in Second Life is secure, if you say it in the open, there are many different ways someone could be listening, and even private chat I wonder if it is really secure. At the very least the Lindens could access it, I’m assuming, not sure how long stuff like that would stay around though.

IBM has the right idea, as far as I can tell, they have even posted rules about their employees in Second Life and how they should conduct themselves when in world. The IBM rules say employees are not to discriminate or harass, or share any intellectual property with people who aren’t supposed to see it. Their avatars should also have a business like appearance. The very minimum companies should do is list the rules and give them to the employees, especially when sensitive data could be leaked accidentally.

So, yes, Second Life is a security risk to some businesses, but as long as they have an idea of what they need to do when setting up, and communicate with their employees about data and protecting their brand, then the risk will be similar to any other aspect of their business.

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