Analyzing Social Media Security Risks and Threats to Businesses

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the security risks and threats that businesses face when utilizing social media platforms. It highlights critical issues such as virus attacks, ransomware, uncontrolled user access, profile hacking, human errors, brand impersonation, and phishing. The report explains how hackers exploit these vulnerabilities to steal data, disrupt operations, and damage brand reputation. It also examines the consequences of not paying adequate attention to social media security, including spamming, loss of trust, and potential data breaches. The report emphasizes the need for clear social media policies to mitigate these risks and protect business assets. The study incorporates the various references to support the findings and provide an overview of the current security landscape. It concludes by stressing the importance of proactive security measures to ensure the continued success of business operations in the digital age.

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IT write up

Security Issues of using social media for business
Introduction
It is true that several security issues tend to target the social media. Social media has
helped the company in a great way to market its business and connect with the customers. In
the recent time, increasing use of social media has possessed several security issues in the
business. Therefore, for protecting the company from the different security threats, it is also
essential to be aware of the security risks that can come in front due to the presence of social
media. In the paper also, discussion has been done on the security threats that is faced by
businesses due to the presence of social media.
Major security issues faced by the businesses
 Virus attacks and Ransomware: the term, Ransomware present several malicious
software that block the easy access to computer system. Social media account of the business
can be used in mainly two ways. Firstly, any bad or negative actor can capture the
personalised details from the account of social media. The information that is collected can
be used for creating the fake email. Secondly, it is obvious that the information collected will
be posted to the email (Soomro, Shah & Ahmed, 2016). Due to the correct information on
email, recipient might think that the email is safe.
 Uncontrolled user access: It is true that several companies share the credentials with
social media agencies, managers as well as consultants. Due to this, it proved to be the bad
practice for security. Besides this, several companies also have application that directly
connected with the social media account. Due to this, it becomes easy for the hackers to sue
the information for their personal use. In this way, uncontrolled access of the users generate
several problem for the company that ends up by possessing negative consequences.
 Profile hacking: it is one of the major threat seen due to the social media presence.
The presence of several hackers presents the high risk to the businesses when their profile is
hacked. The hacking of profile lead to the misuse of significant information available on the
profile of the company (Saridakis, Benson, Ezingeard & Tennakoon, 2016).
 Human errors: It is most common security issues associated with the use of social
media for business. There are times when employees share their naughty photos on the

account of the company. This lead to the compliance risk and buffet of security. It is the most
common thing that cause security risks such as scams, phishing attacks, as well as some other
cyber annoyance (Walash, 2019).
 Brand impersonation: recently, businesses are falling prey in terms of the brand
impersonation. It is because almost all the hackers as well as competitors might promote the
wrong things on the duplicate file (Abomhara, 2015). It is rightly stated that the social media
profile of the business tends to represent. Therefore, any false activity conducted on the
profile can send the wrong message to the customers. Any wrong information or misleading
information fi reach to the customers, it seriously harms the brand.
 Phishing: It means creation of the false social media accounts that look quite similar
to the original account of the business. By using such methods, hackers tend to attract huge
number of customers toward themselves. By making wrong use of the business social media
account, they also steal the confidential information of the customers. In addition to this,
several people also end up by sharing their credit card or bank details with the fraud people. It
is the most significant security threat that imposes the high level of risk to the new as well as
existing customers (Stieglitz, Mirbabaie, Ross & Neuberger, 2018).
 Not paying enough attention on the social media: This also proves to be the serious
consequence to the company. If any business leaves the account unmonitored, it become the
target of the malicious attack such as virus. It might be possible that followers start spamming
the message from the account. This will lead to losing of the confidence and trust related to
the brand. Through these things, business data can be put at risk with the increase in
malicious application. The risk to computer security does not come from the attackers social
media efforts. Most of the employees also lead a connected life where they regularly posting
and checking on social media at every hour of the day (Zhang & Gupta, 2018). Moreover,
effective social engineer attackers also able to easily convince the users for revealing their
authentic information or passwords. These kind of administrative attacks bring several
negative consequences especially when business do not have the significant resources to
recover the data from attack (Shoro, Hyder & Kazmi, 2018).
Conclusion
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that social media has
transformed the business. It gives the new way to company the way it reach to its customers.

At the same time, security risk has also increased through the social media. It has become the
major concern for the businesses. However, it is true that social media cannot be ignored
because it plays a significant role in the business. The major risk identified from the social
media is the infection of systems and networks by the malware. At the same time, it is also
seen that business data can be put at risk with the increase in malicious application. Due to
these security threats, several business units end up by damaging the image of their company.
It is therefore required by the company to ensure the clear social media policy so that it can
safe itself from the security threats.

References
Abomhara, M. (2015). Cyber security and the internet of things: vulnerabilities, threats,
intruders and attacks. Journal of Cyber Security and Mobility, 4(1), 65-88.
Saridakis, G., Benson, V., Ezingeard, J. N., & Tennakoon, H. (2016). Individual information
security, user behaviour and cyber victimisation: An empirical study of social
networking users. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 102, 320-330.
Shoro, S., Hyder, M. S., & Kazmi, S. N. H. (2018). Social Media Security Risks and Cyber
Threats. International Journal of Computer Science & Emerging Technologies, 2(1),
33-37.
Soomro, Z. A., Shah, M. H., & Ahmed, J. (2016). Information security management needs
more holistic approach: A literature review. International Journal of Information
Management, 36(2), 215-225.
Stieglitz, S., Mirbabaie, M., Ross, B., & Neuberger, C. (2018). Social media analytics–
Challenges in topic discovery, data collection, and data preparation. International
journal of information management, 39, 156-168.
Walsh, J. P. (2019). Social media and border security: Twitter use by migration policing
agencies. Policing and Society, 1-19.
Zhang, Z., & Gupta, B. B. (2018). Social media security and trustworthiness: overview and
new direction. Future Generation Computer Systems, 86, 914-925.