The State Worker: EDD says new web software blocks blog access

The State Worker

Chronicling civil-service life for California state workers

April 5, 2011

EDD says new web software blocks blog access

We've been hearing from folks in various units of the Employment Development Department that their access to The State Worker has been cut off.

Given some of the challenges that The Bee confronted with access from state computers, we figured that these complaints were part of a problem on our side of the Web.

But The Bee's corporate tech staff at McClatchy Interactive fixed the problem and confirmed it a few weeks ago. So we contacted Patti Roberts at EDD. Here's what she e-mailed last week:

Jon -

Hope this helps:

Generally speaking, EDD staff do not have access to social media sites (such as blogs and Facebook, etc.) unless a business need requires it (like those of us in Public Affairs who work with the media). Security is the main reason because if staff isn't careful some links out there can open our network to vulnerabilities.

In some cases, someone who may have had access to some social media sites before may have found that no longer the case when the department recently went to some new Web screening software.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Patti Roberts
EDD Communications

The department has been phasing the software in "over the last couple months," Roberts said in a subsequent e-mail.

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