Report on Social Media Security and Privacy Issues and Solutions

This report provides an overview of security and privacy issues in social media. It highlights challenges like hacking, phishing, and unauthorized access, along with potential solutions such as SSL, strong login credentials, and encryption. The report discusses the impact of these issues on users and businesses, clarifying unclear areas like data management and malware entry. It also presents research questions and addresses issues discussed in forums, emphasizing the need for both user and developer efforts to enhance security. Furthermore, the report explores related technologies, their applications, and the effects of security and privacy issues on people worldwide, including social media marketers. The conclusion summarizes the importance of understanding risks, challenges, and available solutions for safe social media usage. The references include various resources discussing social media security and privacy.

Information Security
Security and Privacy Issues with Social Media
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Executive Summary
The main concerning topic of this report is issues of security and privacy in social media. It is an
essential topic to discuss because today these issues of social media are putting bad influence on
users. Although it is a wide topic to discuss, here I will emphasize on some essential topics only
such as challenges & problems, its relevant technologies and its applications and research
questions and clarification about unclear areas of social media. This report will help to
understand fundamental aspects of security and privacy in social media and how these problems
can be resolved by using latest tools and techniques.
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Challenges of Social Media regarding Security and Privacy......................................................3
Problems Areas regarding Security and Privacy of Social Media Users....................................4
Related Technologies...................................................................................................................4
Technology’s Applications...........................................................................................................5
Clarification of Unclear Areas....................................................................................................5
Research Questions......................................................................................................................6
Mentioned Issues in Forum..........................................................................................................6
Effect of Security and Privacy Issues of Social Media on People Worldwide.............................6
An important issue not mentioned in Forum................................................................................7
Important Lesson of Discussion...................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Nowadays, social media has become so popular among people for communication and sharing of
information among people worldwide. The social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and
LinkedIn etc. are commonly used by people. There are several benefits of using social media for
both business organizations and for other common users. The basic concept of social media is
that it is combination of websites and applications that can be used by users to create and share
content among others via online. Whether there are some benefits of social media but on other
side, there are challenges, risks and problems are concerned with this technology. In upcoming
paragraphs, we will discuss about essential points in detail.
Discussion
It is an important segment of this report to discuss challenges and issues of security and privacy
issues of social media.
Challenges of Social Media regarding Security and Privacy
According to analysis, I got to know that the main challenges of security of social media is to
choose best strategy by developers to get high level security and privacy of information that is
transferred over internet. Without an appropriate technology, it is difficult to get prevention from
vulnerable attacks such as hacking, phishing, DDOS etc. (methodshop, 2017)
Another important challenge is for business enterprises those provide services to its users for
social networking. People submit their information online with trust on companies and they want
to proper security of their information. It is matter of believe of customers and reputation of
companies. So advanced security facility is necessary to provide to customers to satisfy them.
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Moreover, it is also important to be update about new tools and techniques of security and
privacy tools. In most of cases, due to lack of awareness about advanced techniques to maintain
security of their networks and computers, users have to encounter vulnerable network attacks. It
is also a big challenge for users to be aware about availability of new kinds of software solutions
and their usage.
Problems Areas regarding Security and Privacy of Social Media Users
Another important thing to discuss here in this report is regarding problems areas of social media
in case of security and privacy of users (Fast Company, 2017).
1. The key problem is unauthorized access of information from online databases of social
networking websites. It has commonly seen that hackers try to hack websites to get users’
personal and business information and further this information is misused by them to
fulfill purpose of money. So now users need to be very careful about safety of their data
(Hootsuite Social Media Management, 2017).
2. Another important issue is of spamming. To retrieve data from user’s systems, spam
emails are sent to them in their inbox and that emails have some vulnerable attachments.
Whenever, spam email is opened by users then virus enters into system or network and
can cause damage. Here, it is necessary for users to ignore or delete these spam emails
(nadikari123, 2017).
Related Technologies
These security and privacy related issues of security and privacy of social media can be resolved
by using some essential technologies. These security and privacy related technologies are listed
as below (MakeUseOf, 2017):
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1. SSL i.e. Secure Socket Layer is one of the important and effective techniques that can be
used for protecting social networking websites that are used by people for communication
and content sharing purpose. It is a very secure network layer and considered better for
sending and receiving important information online.
2. Furthermore, at user’s end proper security can be maintained by using strong login
credentials. These credentials are username and password and these must not be weak.
This is because, hackers can easily guess easy passwords and access information in
unauthorized way.
3. Encryption of database’s content is also an effective solution to get better security and
privacy of data. By using this technique, data can be secured into database in secured and
encrypted format that is hard to identify by cyber-attackers.
Technology’s Applications
The application area of above discussed security and privacy technologies is wide enough. These
technologies can be used anywhere for maintaining long term security and privacy of database,
network and computer systems that are used for business and as well as for personal usage.
Clarification of Unclear Areas
Most of the social media users have fundamental knowledge about it. But still there are some
unclear areas that must be cleared to all users. The first unclear area is that how large amount of
data is managed and stored by social media websites. In this case, it can be said that large
databases are used for this purpose but security of these databases is also necessary. Another
unclear area is that how malware enter into user’s system through social sites. In this case, it can
be said that it has happened due to vulnerable ads that are attached with a particular web page
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and while opening that page ads enters into system and spread virus (Langheinrich & Karjoth,
2010).
Research Questions
According to analysis, I got to know one research question that is highly common among people
that privacy is a big issue for social media or not. In answer it can be said that privacy is really
important for users of social media and gradually it is becoming a problem for social networking
sites. Therefore, it is essential duty of social media developers that enhance the level of security
to provide secure services to users (Zheleva, Terzi & Getoor, 2012).
Mentioned Issues in Forum
The main discussed issues in form are concerned with vulnerable issues of security and privacy
of data. The explanation of every issue is appropriate and it is essential for users to be aware
about these issues and try to use suitable security solutions. In addition to this, I would like to say
that to overcome this problem of privacy and security of data, both users and developers need to
do efforts. Developers of social media have to implement new strategies to control cyber-attacks
like hacking, virus attacks and phishing etc. On other side, users should maintain security of their
computers by using available security schemes and policies (Senthil Kumar N, Saravanakumar K
& Deepa K, 2017).
Effect of Security and Privacy Issues of Social Media on People
Worldwide
From above discussion it is cleared that users of social media have so much bad influence of
security and privacy issues of social media. Due to this, people are worried about their
information that is stored in online databases. Hackers have several tools to deliberately access
the sensitive information from databases. Not only common users but also some large business
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enterprises have faced security related issues. Sony, eBay, Nokia and other renowned companies
are in this list (Ieeexplore.ieee.org, 2017).
An important issue not mentioned in Forum
The given information in forum is important and accurate about security issues of social media.
But there is another issue that must be mentioned in forum is social media marketers are also
affected by harmful security violation attacks. Due to this, the maintenance of external and
internal resources, progress of marketing strategies and identification of social media tools have
become more challenging for social media marketers. I have mentioned this issue in this report
because like users and developers, social media marketers play important role in distribution of
social media services and making its strategies (Econsultancy, 2017).
Important Lesson of Discussion
The overall discussion about social media and its challenges, risks and problems is essential and
informative. From this discussion, the main reasons, risk factors, unknown facts and things about
social media are cleared now and it is necessary to cope with critical conditions of cyber- attacks.
Furthermore, it helps to enhance level of prevention by providing knowledge about latest
security tools and techniques that can be used by both users and security professionals
(Searchsecurity.techtarget.com, 2017).
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Conclusion
To sum up, I can say that while using any new or existing technology, a user has knowledge
about its risks, challenges, benefits and drawbacks. Besides this, the availability of possible
solutions is also required to control major risk factors. From above discussion, users of social
media will be familiar with basics concepts of social media and their outcomes. Now with
advancement of social media, these issues can be increased if no solution will be found quickly.
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References
Methodshop. (2017). 6 Really Scary Facts About Your Privacy on the Internet. Retrieved 27
September 2017, from http://www.methodshop.com/2015/03/internet-privacy-
facts.shtml
MakeUseOf. (2017). 12 Social Media Facts and Statistics You Should Know in 2016.
Retrieved 27 September 2017, from http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/12-social-media-
facts-statistics-know-2016/
Langheinrich, M., & Karjoth, G. (2010). Social networking and the risk to companies and
institutions. Information Security Technical Report, 15(2), 51-56.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.istr.2010.09.001
Searchsecurity.techtarget.com. (2017). Social media security risks news, help and research -
SearchSecurity. Retrieved 27 September 2017, from
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/resources/Social-media-security-risks-and-real-
time-communication-security
Fast Company. (2017). Privacy and Security Issues in Social Networking. Retrieved 27
September 2017, from https://www.fastcompany.com/1030397/privacy-and-security-
issues-social-networking
Zheleva, E., Terzi, E., & Getoor, L. (2012). Privacy in social networks. San Rafael, Calif.
(1537 Fourth Street, San Rafael, CA 94901 USA): Morgan & Claypool.
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Econsultancy. (2017). The four biggest challenges facing social media strategists. Retrieved
27 September 2017, from https://econsultancy.com/blog/67913-the-four-biggest-
challenges-facing-social-media-strategists
Ieeexplore.ieee.org. (2017). Solutions to Security and Privacy Issues in Mobile Social
Networking - IEEE Conference Publication. Retrieved 27 September 2017, from
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5283078/
nadikari123. (2017). Social network privacy & security. Slideshare.net. Retrieved 27
September 2017, from https://www.slideshare.net/nadikari123/social-network-
privacy-security
Hootsuite Social Media Management. (2017). 5 Social Media Security Risks and How to
Avoid Them. Retrieved 27 September 2017, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-
media-security-for-business/
HuffPost.(2017). Social Media Privacy and Personal Security Issues. Retrieved 27 September
2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-siciliano/social-media-privacy-
and_b_245857.html
Senthil Kumar N, Saravanakumar K, & Deepa K. (2017). On Privacy and Security in Social
Media – A Comprehensive Study. Retrieved 27 September 2017, from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050916000211
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