Cyberspace includes the nook and corner of the online platform which connects the countries all over the world to fulfil their social, political and economic goals through the internet governance. Day by day the number of internet issues are increasing dramatically making it essential to have a broader construction of the concept. The mechanism of the internet resulted in the existence of social media as well as cyberspace. The creation of social media is designed to provide students and legal practitioners with a thorough exposure to the laws, regulation and grey areas of commerce via an online platform.

In layman’s language, social media are the platform for communication and interaction. It is a platform where people carelessly establish space by sharing as much of personal details as possible. The risk and challenges attached to it go hand in hand with the protection available. The problem arises with an imbalance between the two and the demand for assessing security risk in the existing information technology system. The available networking platforms in today’s world like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and a lot more are a part of the complicated internet-based business world. As always said, a crowd always attacks another crowd. Hence social media faced explosive growth necessitating secured user information and related systems. While there are many benefits of sharing and communicating through social media, it can also be a big security risk.

Social networks are one of the focused areas by hackers to get access to our private information so that they can loop into our identity. It is way too late to realise the dangerous effect of sharing too much information on social media sites. Using a free Wi-Fi network nor any public and insecure network connection shall provide an extensive amount of public information on behalf of any individual. This information aggregated to establish a profile may be used to compromise an individual’s identity or monitor their behavioural patterns.

Google being one of the free online tools becomes the primary source for the extraction of information. It is the most widely used worldwide search engine compiling data including full name, age and date of birth, pictures of person, home, job, cell phone numbers, home property value etc. Other sites where the user has established profiles include Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter. Facebook avails information on significant relationship status, marketing, birthdays notification, images, social activity updated, religious affiliation, hobbies, common interest groups. LinkedIn is considered as a more professional networking website which is used for searching and recruitment but it discloses our better details including employment history, profession, professional degrees and certifications, college and university data, employment and colleague’s details. Yet another one is SPOKEO, a search engine that organises white page listings, public records and social network information into a simple profile to safely learn about people on relative information, residence history and state affiliation.

Social media is everywhere among parents, children and there are just as many new opportunities to connect as there are to get into potential danger. Social networking has opened up new doors to cybercrimes. Regardless of one’s knowledge or experience regarding social networks, it is more important than ever before to make sure that people are aware of the risk factors. Children are the most vulnerable section of society to these cyber-attacks. Though these websites provide age limitation restrictions, it is easy to fool these systems. There are several scammers on social networks who may try to steal all useful personal information to commit crimes such as identity theft or fraud. Some websites are set to appear like the favourite social website to steal the password so that they could either destroy it or send spam messages and viruses. Hence it is very essential to be on the right side while entering the credentials to protect yourselves from criminals hiding behind fake profiles to collect valuable information.

Everything one shares publicly or privately is being stored and analysed. But it’s not just social media sites, now there is even a digital record of everything you buy, everything you watch, where you go and what happens in your house. Even the physical characteristics are tracked and stored. All these data are used to create profiles using algorithms, these watchers can cater marketing strategies directly to you. The storage and aggregation of these data are becoming one of the profitable enterprises on the planet. All these platforms become more inherent in our lives; social platforms have become a crucial attack vector that no one can ignore no longer. According to Dr Michael McGuire, a senior lecturer in Criminology at the University of Surrey, cybercriminals rake in over $3ba year from social media all around the world. These days burglars use social media as a burglary database rich with personal information like location and work titles and they monitor social updates on Facebook or Twitter to execute burglary. The biggest social media platforms have huge societal power but no regulated responsibilities to protect users. Reports of cyber-attacks around the globe disclose the findings of how careless the big companies are. The investigation report of the New York State Department of Financial Services confirmed how Twitter lets itself dupe by a simple social engineering technique and hack the login credentials of the employees. They were also able to access the Twitter accounts of high-profile politicians, celebrities and entrepreneurs including Barack Obama, Kim Kardashian, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and several crypto currency companies. Further two men were charged by the US Department of Justice for allegedly hacking the social media accounts of Professional athletes in the NFL NBA via phishing campaigns.

What can you do?

The solution doesn’t come from stopping the use of these applications. Don’t panic and be aware. User vigilance is the first step of defence but it alone cannot overcome the threat. It is necessary to form a second layer of protection. You can look for the opt-out button. Limit the personal information you post on social media and only connect with people you know. It is advised to use different username and passwords on all social media networks. Use strong passwords that allow duty policy and contain upper- and lower-case letters, symbols, numbers with at least fifteen characters in length. Configure and double-check the profile security settings after updates are released and above all keep the antivirus and operating system up to date. Finally, turn off your social media location feature as this can automatically tag your whereabouts when you post to social media sites.

Thus, it becomes essential to make awareness among the people for the need to have a secured account. Ultimately it is not just the individual who’ll be affected but also indirectly leads to national security. One can be intentionally targeted to satisfy the greed of hackers.