The Use Of Social Networking Sites

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Main objectives of this literature review are as following:

To identify the environment in which risks associated with the use of social networking sites occur the most.

To identify the different groups who are the most vulnerable to the risks associated with the use of social networking sites.

To evaluate the potential damage if risks are not identified and treated timely and properly.

To construct an overview of safe-to-use environment within social networking sites and how to raise society’s awareness on risks associated with the use of social networking sites.

To draw a parallel between the actual situation in society and risks associated with the use of social networking sites.

To develop a picture of the most threatened society layers.

Literature review

Social networking sites usage on regular basis raises the risks as the usage consistently grows. These risks are normally found within security breach, stealing of the private data, stalking, spying, identity theft and online sexual harassment (Browser Media, Socialnomics, MacWorld, 2012). Research conducted by American Federal Bureau Investigation’s Department for Internet Criminal and Online Frauds (2012) revealed that the biggest risks occur due to the user’s weak knowledge about the social platforms they are using and the overall level of technology competence. "Social Engineering" [1] is the biggest risk and the biggest threat to most of the users of social networking sites as this is the most commonly used method by hackers to achieve a security breach and penetrate the "victim’s" security system (Ross, 2012). Hereby, we can make a conclusion that vast majority of risks occur once the potential victim has already made a particular form of contact with the "attacker" himself/herself. Either out of ignorance, or simply due to the low awareness level – most of the people will fall into this trap. Once the "attacker" has made a contact with the victim, social engineering process starts. This can be easily done via social networking sites as they are meant to provide the platform for instant or delayed communication. Large amount of data stored on social networking sites make them a high-risk place as most of the users don’t bother "protecting" their personal information as they consider themselves already safe. This feeling is only superficial as all the social networking users are highly submissive to hackers’ intrusions and are exposed to various risks, if they don’t pay extra attention to the type of information exposed. These security holes can be easily used to obtain and crack e-mail passwords which can lead to disclosure of highly private personal data and personal pieces of high value information such as credit card numbers, PIN digits, etc. The damage can be done in various manners, depending on the age and social status of the "victim".

The groups that are most vulnerable to the risks present at social networking sites are teenagers, who suffer the most due to the private information exposure, and mid-aged people who are

poorly tech-savvy, thus they make easy targets for social engineering methods. The second group suffers the most due to the financial loss in case of security breach of successful internet fraud. The study conducted by PewInternet Journal (2011) raised the awareness of appearance of specific form of emotional harassment present on social networking sites – a "cyber bulling". This form of bullying is equivalent to its standard form, it only happens in virtual world, however the aftermaths are no different, even opposite, and sometimes they can be so intense they lead to suicidal behavior of the "victims". The appearance of cyber bullying has emerged with the large amount of private data exposed at social networking sites, which is not completely safe as it is thought to be. Either by chance, or planned, this information becomes revealed by third persons where the victim suffers the most. The study of PewInternet Journal furthermore implied the questionnaire applied at 886 teens showed that 32% of examinees responded positively when asked if they have ever experienced some form of cyber bulling.

Mid-aged, poorly tech-savvy, persons are the other vulnerable group of internet frauds and are highly exposed to the risks of social networking sites. Large amount of information stored on the profiles of these persons, in combination with their low awareness of the risks present on social networking sites, are the perfect match for the individuals with bad intentions. Taken in account the number of information average user leaves on social media, it is not hard to make a conclusion about the most ordinary activities of this particular individual. Individual’s well known routine can easily lead to house burglary, no matter how this inoffensively might sound (Federal Bureau of Investigation, USA, 2012). Investigation conducted by FBI (2011), after series of burglaries in a small town in northern Michigan, USA, revealed that the burglars were keeping a close-eye on the Facebook and Twitter activities of their victims-to-be. Once they would get to know the routine of their targets, they would wait and simply apply the info their victims were posting on social media by themselves, everyday, inadvertently telling everybody when they would be home.

Another, extremely vulnerable group of social network users, which is probably exposed to the largest risk is – underage social network users. By underage, it is implied the users who would

legally not be eligible to join the social networks, but they avoided verification systems, or lied about the age in order to get there in the virtual world. According to the research conducted by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2010, this group of social network users is the most vulnerable to the raising number of sexual predators present at global growing social network (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram…). Using the method of social engineering, these predators present the great and ultimate risk to the underage social network users. Consequences by these users can be even fatal in case they get lured.

Unlike pass years, today it is consistently spoken about the problems and risks carried by social networking sites. Society is trying to raise the awareness to these risks through aggressive and consistent media campaign and additional education on various forms of risks lurking on different social networking sites. The most efficient method of prevention would be on individual level, inside a family itself. As long as parents are managing active surveillance on what their children are doing while online – it is high probability that the most of the consequences are going to be prevented (Anderson-Butcher, D., ball, A., Brzozowski, M., Lasseigne, A.,Lehnert, M.. & McCormick, B.L., 2010).

Conclusion

The benefits carried by social networking sites are truly great and various. We can interact and communicate with users from all around the world, keep in regular and quality touch with our friends and family from miles away, meet new languages, cultures and places by not leaving our room at all. These are truly wonderful things provided by social networking sites (Zuckerberg, 2007). Just like anywhere else in realistic world, virtual world of social media is infested with people of bad intentions, thus the risks are out there, lurking. Society has done large step forward with raising global awareness of the risks associated with the use of social networking sites. However, the next step forward would be better education at the level of individual, rather than at the mass level. Once individual is aware, the most important unit of the society will be safe – a family. This is the weakest point in the society’s secure system. Once society manages to protect the individual than we will be able to say we have risk-free social networking sites. By that moment, what we can do is to take upon use of software developed specifically to protect ourselves and our children. Install parent monitoring software to keep a close eye on what our children our doing while we are away from PC. This can help in preventing terrible consequences. The key lays in raising the awareness of individual.

Literature

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