Social media is getting popular as an entity for exchanging information, entertainment, and virtual connection between masses. Social networking sites are also. Vic Vexploited for promoting the business via ads and e-commerce related activities. Organizations use social networking to brand their products among consumers. The impact of information technology can be realized in every sector but certain issues must be addressed properly to safeguard ourselves from potential harms such as privacy breaches, social and cybersecurity issues. The main issues that can predispose a user to cyberattacks are discussed.
Misuse of personal identity:
The attackers impersonate the identity of an individual through various apps and lure for granting permission to run such programs on social media sites. If a user grants permission, the attacker collects personal information and misuses the same afterward without the knowledge of the user thereby compromising privacy.
Misuse by third-party applications:
Various third-party applications like games are designed to run on social media but the social media group do not take responsibility for such out of platform applications in their terms and conditions. The official site does not recommend the use of 3rd party apps that seek permission from the user and may download malicious programs and run them in the background to steal important credentials stored on the computer without the consent of the user and breach the privacy window in no time. So we must not grant any sought of permission to such app while using social media sites.
Trusting social media operators:
Social media operators store the information uploaded to the server even if it is deleted by the user. The auto-fill menus are one of the examples that are remembered by the servers and can be accessed by the operator for commercial use like posting relevant and targeted ads etc.
Viruses and phishing attacks:
These attacks are very common in today’s world as we don’t take precautions during web surfing on social platforms. These malicious programs find their way to your network through annoying ads and steal important information. This information will be used by hackers to post phishing emails that can compromise social security. Kaspersky Labs statistics exposed that the fake social sites imitating Facebook users account for nearly 22% of phishing attacks in 2014. Fake web pages that look like original ones can confuse. When a user enters any sensitive information like a banking Password on that fake site. The web page immediately transmits that information to a hacker sitting far away and compromises financial security. It is advised to check the security of the page before entering any financial details. The SSL certificate validity can be checked by the user by clicking a padlock displayed at the start of every link leading to financial transactions. This is not a foolproof way to identify the phishing site as cases are rising that contain SSL secured phishing links. Users must check that the link must start with HTTPS or is HTTPS phrase that ensures the secure page but it is also advised to check the spelling of the web page as the hackers may substitute the alphabet O with zero for eg. www.yah00.co.in. Hence spotting a phishing link is very important to identify it from legitimate web pages. The web pages may contain extra characters and symbols that are not intended to use in links by official pages. Simple spelling mistakes in the content of the pages, low-resolution images, grammatical errors are the warning signs that you landed on a phishing link and the user is advised to leave them immediately. Official pages have a contact us column that contains valid email addresses etc and the lack of this section on a web page give you an indication that it is a fake page.
Tracking the users:
These attacks can raise physical security concerns by monitoring the real-time location of the user thereby compromising privacy. So it is wise enough to deny location access to 3rd party apps to safeguard yourself while on a social media platform.
Legal issues:
Avoid posting any posts that can potentially harm the sentiments of any particular community or compromise the privacy of any one This can create a legal lawsuit against the user heading to legal action.
Recommendations:
1. It is recommended to the companies to make user-friendly applications with intact security to avoid any potential harm to the users. They must. Provide filters to filter spam emails on a real-time basis. WhatsApp uses two-factor authentication to secure login and end to end chat encryption technology prevents privacy breach by any malicious program.
2. The users must use virtual keyboards instead of the regular keyboard of the devices during financial transactions because these keyboards work on the principle of cryptography and render it difficult to get invaded by hackers.
3. The user must report potentially harmful content to safeguard others from falling prey to it.
4. The user must install a good antivirus and internet security software to add another layer of security.
5. Check the spellings of links and always rely on typing addresses themselves in the address window to open official pages of reputed organizations and do not google search and click.
