Managing Digital Identities: Digital Identity & Social Media Promotion

This report evaluates the use of digital identity across social media platforms for business promotion, focusing on security threats and mitigation strategies. It examines why companies like ABC Limited, XYZ Limited, Digital Shopping Inc., and Sport Online Private Limited consider digital identity, how they execute it, the security ramifications, and the precautions they take. The report also emphasizes the importance of creating a digital identity for serving online consumers, outlining the benefits such as enhanced consumer engagement, organized data collection, and effective product promotion. It details the procedure for creating a secure digital identity, including data capture, analysis using big data and AI, and securing the identity with verification techniques. Finally, it addresses security threats like data theft and highlights the importance of data outsourcing and insurance for mitigating risks.

Running head: DIGITAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION
DIGITAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Part one:
Evaluate why and how a company might use a digital identity across social media
platforms to promote itself. What are the security threats and how to mitigate those
security issues?
In this section, it will be evaluated why it is important to have a digital identity for a
company to promote itself across the social media platform. Along with that it will also be
discussed how company make effective social media platform and what are the available
strategies that the companies might consider. The discussion involves four different
companies to demonstrate the concept. Security issues related to the digital identity has also
been discussed.
1. Digital identity for ABC limited across social media platforms to promote itself:
1.1. Why to consider:
To create trust among the consumers is an important aspect of digital identity and
social media is an essential aspect in this regard (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). Leading tech
companies like Samsung, Apple, and Google has strong digital presence due to its strong
digital identity for which social media plays an important role. Hence their consumer base is
also higher, even though cheap alternatives to their product and service offerings are
available in the market as well.
1.2. How to execute:
Solving quires of the consumer, collecting consumer feedback and providing attention
to the consumer feedback (Tuten & Solomon, 2017). When companies engage with
consumers through solving quires and replying to them, take their feedback seriously, it

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shows that company care for the consumers which helps in building consumer engagement
and consumer trust.
1.3. The security ramifications to the company:
Ransomeware:
In order to properly solve consumer queries, companies often ask for details regarding
consumer id, order details as well as financial statements (Killian & McManus, 2015). Now
this data are very important from the consumer as well as from the company point of view.
Now a ransomeware attack might encrypt this data and deny company access to this data
In a recent ransomeware attack, Media prima, the largest media group in Malaysia,
reported that after its internal servers was hacked and attacker demanded RM15 million in
bitcoin to gain access to its organisational data.
1.4. Precaution to be used for mitigating the security risk:
 Firewalls: it helps to prevent access to the private network if it is not authenticated
and firewalls is efficient in determining which network access is authenticated and
which one is not (Amer et al., 2018).
 Antivirus: it helps to identify if any malicious software is installed or not on the
computer system, thus providing protection against malicious software (Gunasinghe
& Bertino, 2015).
 Employees training: Employees training provides employees in identifying malicious
sources and other security threats more efficiently if they are given proper training in
this aspect (Asghar, Backes & Simeonovski, 2018, May).
 Data outsourcing: it makes it possible to retrieve the encrypted data in the
ransomeware attack without paying the cybercriminal huge amount of money which
amount of money which they often demand (Birch, (2017).

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 Insurance: it provides financial protection against ransomeware attack not only for the
company, but for the consumer as well if their financial demand need to be addressed.
2. Digital identity for XYZ limited across social media platforms to promote itself:
2.1. Why to consider:
To create popularity for the brand, the product and the service (Jayaram, Manrai, &
Manrai, 2015).
2.2. How to execute:
To shares sales figure among the consumer. It helps people to identify the reach of the
company and its market position and brand popularity in the market which is an advantage
for the company as well (Barberis, 2018).
2.3. The security ramifications to the company:
Hackers:
The sales figures might attract Hackers to hack the database that contains personal as
well as credit and debit card information (Sullivan, 2015). In April 2018, a leading Canadian
retail company Hudson Bay Co. announced that a security breach has hacked personal
information of millions of its consumers and their card information has also been
compromised as well due to the security breach.
2.4. Precaution to be used for mitigating the security risk:
 Antivirus: to prevent hacker to access computer system and deploy malicious code
for data breach
 Data outsourcing: due to hacking companies often find it difficult to retrieve
important organizational data and hence keeping an alternative resource for important

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data is always an important idea to ensure that that essentials data are backed up, so
that it is easy to get access to them (Sanchez, Bernabe & Skarmeta , 2018). Hence
outsourcing of data is an important strategy. However in this regard, companies
should chose the vendor wisely as the chance of secure outsourcing is dependent on
the choice for vendor.
 Firewall: to provide secure and authenticated access to the organizational network
(Alrodhan, 2017).
 Insurance: to arrange for financial resources when company need to deal with
financial aspect of the data hacks.
 Biometric authentication: integrate advance biometric solution with advance voice
analysis technique to identify real consumer and also differentiate them from the
hackers trying to present them as real consumer.
3. Digital identity for digital shopping Inc. across social media platforms to promote
itself:
3.1. Why to consider:
To create brand awareness (Wheeler, 2017).
3.2. How to execute:
Showcasing wide range of products across social media (Hanna & Rowley, 2015).
3.3. The security ramifications to the company:
Phishing:
Hackers might directly send link in the email of the consumers showcasing wide
range of products, making them believe that an authenticate one and sent by the company

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(Holt & Malčić, 2015). Once clicked the link it might steal personal information from the
mobile or the computer from which the link is accessed.
3.4. Precaution to be used for mitigating the security risk:
 Email policy: to help to identify between fake and authenticate email id for enhancing
security.
 Employee training: to create awareness between them about the way email phishing
works and how to stop them. This will help to reduce the amount of incident through
enhanced awareness about this particular cyber-crime.
 Data outsourcing: to keep secure alternatives for data source if it is corrupted with
phishing.
 Insurance: it provides financial protection against phishing attack not only for the
company, but for the consumer as well if their financial demand need to be addressed.
4. Digital identity for sport online private limited across social media platforms to
promote itself:
4.1. Why to consider:
To attract consumer and increase profit (Kleppinger, & Cain, 2015).
4.2. How to execute:
Showcasing attractive offers and promoting it across social media (Killian &
McManus, 2015).
4.3. The security ramifications to the company:
Malware:

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The cyber criminals through malicious code get access to the server and system
through which it is possible to get control of the system and the network and access whatever
information they want. They often demand money or there might be numerous reason behind
this activities (Laurent & Bouzefrane, 2015).
4.4. Precaution to be used for mitigating the security risk:
 Antivirus: it helps to recognize malicious software, thus providing protection of
computer systems against malicious software.
 Data outsourcing: to keep secure alternatives for data source if it is corrupted with
malware.
 Email policies: to help employees and consumers to identify between fake and
authenticate email id for enhancing security.
 Firewall: to create a strong, secure and authenticate network access.
 Insurance: to arrange for financial resources when company need to deal with
financial aspect of the malware hacks.

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Part two:
1. Importance of creating digital identity for serving online consumers:
When a company develops a wide base of digital customer who prefers online
interaction need to be served with proper digital identity. In order to serve the customer
appropriately and develop a strong customer base it is important for the company to create a
digital identity for each of its customer (Kleppinger, & Cain, 2015). No in order to evaluate
why a company even care to create a digital identity for each of its customer, it is important
to assess the requirement and specially the benefits it’s provide. According to Hanna and
Rowley (2015), some of the benefits of the digital identity are:
 Isolation of customer and enhanced consumer engagement:
From the large consumer base, especially when it being served through online
platforms, it is important to identify each and every customer to sever them better.
Isolation is important because it helps to categorize the customer according based on
their preference and choice. This categorization is essential in the online market space
as it helps to personalize the consumer experience with the company for ensuring
better consumer engagement. When there is so many consumer online, it is not
possible to sever each one of them efficiently without recognizing the digital presence
of the consumer and for this digital identity is an essential requirement for every
company aiming to create a strong digital presence.
 Organized digital data collection and analysis:
With the advancement of the technology and the increase in the digital
activities it is no longer an option for the companies to collect digital data of the
customer but an essential requirement as well. Not only collection of the data is
important, it is equally important for the companies to analyze it as well. However

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there is so many digital sources corresponding to the digital data, if there is no
dedicated digital identity, the data collection is not organized due to variety in ten data
sources which affects the data analyzing quality, thus affecting the quality and details
of the information retrieved.
 Effective promotion of the products that meet the requirements and preference
of the consumer:
When the data analysis is proper and organized due to effective integration of
digital identity, it helps company to make decision regarding the consumer choice and
preference for products and services that the companies are trying to sell in the
market. Hence it provides the company an effective guideline to reach the consumer
that meets consumer requirements and preference. Hence the marketing and
promotion is more efficient and streamlined that ensures better consumer
management, thus ensuring success for the company. Leading ecommerce company
amazon follows this strategy for serving the online consumers effectively.
2. Procedure to create digital identity for serving consumer online:
According to Friedman and Wagoner (2015), 3 steps need to be followed for creating
a secure and effective digital identity for the consumer:
 Capturing data from various online resources and digital platform where consumer
has presence
 Once the data is captured then the data needs to be analyzed. Now this is data is not
structured and it is also not possible to manually analyze the data. Hence automation
is required. Big data combined with artificial intelligence technique provides

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companies an excellent opportunity to derive insight from the data collected from
various digital resources.
 Once effective digital identity is created through the above two steps, it is required to
secure the identity with verification techniques such as biometric recognition,
encryption,, two phase authentication and other advance techniques as well.
3. Security threats:
According to Grassi, Garcia and Fenton (2017), some of the security issues of digital identity
are:
 Data theft: when a consumer create a digital identity online it involves a lot of
information that is shared online. Now to engage and serve the consumer better,
companies often collect this online data to form large consumer base online. Now if
the digital identity is accessed or hacked by cyber criminals it is possible to get aces to
lot of personal information that is private and sensitive as well leading to data theft.
 Violation of consumer trust: when a consumer submit details regarding his or her
online identity to the organization, it implies that the consumer trust the organization
that his or her data will be secured through effective security measures. Hence this
data is lost or hacked, it violates consumer trust to the company leading to less
consumer satisfaction and decline in consumer base.
 Financial loss: data in this digital age is worth million and hence protecting digital
identity is an important consideration for the companies that want to create an
effective and secure digital for recognizing its consumer and manage them
appropriately. Hence data theft regarding the consumer digital identity contributes to
financial loss as well.
 Legal consequences: when companies collect digital data for creating digital identity,
they should follow legal compliance and it describes that companies need to provide

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optimized security for protecting the consumer data and any violation to that might
bring legal consequences for the company such as paying financial terms if demanded
by the consumer with valid reason for the demand for payment.
4. Strategies for mitigation:
According to Olszewski (2015), some effective strategies for mitigating those security
challenges are:
 Security for main data server through encryption.
 Restricting access to consumer database through two phase authentication system,
setting admin control over the database.
 Categorizing information in terms of sensitivity and importance to identify the source
of information and manage it better.
 Creating awareness within consumers through online to help them to protect their
digital identity from the cyber-crime activities.

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