KILLEEN - The Department of Defense is in the midst of reviewing use of social networking media, like Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter, on government computers.  While security issues are of concern, users of such sites at Fort Hood can also attest to their benefit in enhancing communications with family and the public.

"It's hard for [families] to stay in the loop," said Kathryn Messerschmidt, a family readiness support assistant.  "There are so many things we can't put out that someone can get to.  But on Facebook we have the option of having a secured site.  If you do a search for our Facebook account for this team, it doesn't even show up."

Messerschmidt runs a secure Facebook site for one unit, allowing family members to talk about when the soldiers have arrived overseas or have returned home.  She has sole administrative access to post pictures.

"It serves a lot of purposes.  It really does.  But communication being the most important," she said.

A representative from the Department of Defense, Jack Holt, said that briefings on such Internet security issues should be completed by the end of August, and that a memorandum on any new policy will be issued by the end of September.

About their concerns, Holt said, "operations security; some of the new tools have the ability to aggregate data.  In some cases that could be a very good thing, and in other cases it could be a very dangerous thing."

Major. Leilani Tydingco has two siblings also in the army.  She said that she warns them not to post anything related to business.

"You never know if you're in a classified area.  You might take a picture and inadvertently something in the background is of a secret nature," she said.

Holt said, "The environment has changed.  There are a lot of different things that are happening out there.  We need to find out what is our responsible way ahead?"

He said that solutions can range from having the social networking sites available only on stand-alone computers not connected to the army's internal network, to having the sites available on all computers in a safe way.