Social Media Threats and Counter Measures | Social Media

This course on Social Media Threats and Counter Measures is based on the facts that we experience in our life since the inception of social media. The key purpose of this course is to educate the masses about the dark side of social media along with countermeasures.

Social media are Internet-based communication and mutual interaction technologies. These are computer networks created for exchanging multimedia-rich content between users especially pictures and video clips. Social media (SM) sites are amongst the most widely used technologies on the Internet e.g Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, Twitter, etc. These sites have hundreds of millions of daily users and the number is ever-increasing with the advent of smartphones and 3G I 4G even 5G networks. People enjoy using Online Social Networks (OSN) to interact with families, friends, and other people through sharing of experiences, pictures, videos, and other types of information. On the other hand, social media also has a dark side which is ripped with hackers, fraudsters, online predators, and intelligence agencies; all capable of using OSN as a platform for targeting their next victim.

Unfortunately, most users are unaware of the security risks associated with social media platforms which mainly include breach of privacy, identity theft, malware, fake profiles, blackmailing, and sexual harassment.

According to recent studies, many social media users expose intimate and sensitive personal details about themselves, their friends, families, personal relationships, and organizations, either by posting photos or by directly providing information such as home/ office addresses/ phone numbers, current activities, and location. Moreover, Facebook users tend to accept friendship requests from unknown people, who are sometimes friends of their friends. By accepting these friend requests, users unknowingly disclose their private information to total strangers. This information could be used maliciously, harming users both in the virtual and in the real world. These risks increase manifold when the users are children or teenagers who are more exposed and vulnerable than adults. Horrifically, in some cases cyberbullying through social media can lead to catastrophic results like committing suicide by the affected children.

In this era of social media growth, we must keep some preventive measures while using social media. In this course following main topics have been covered:-

1. Introduction to the Social Media
2. Terminologies used in the cyber world
3. Social Media Threats
4. Counter Measures
5. Conclusion

We hope the students will learn a lot from this valuable course.