INFORMATION SECURITY CHALLENGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR COMPANIES

For companies and its employees, social media allows new ways to communicate with customers and colleagues. Vast amounts of information are being exchanged in social media. Information is a highly valuable asset, and therefore questions concerning information security become increasingly important. Companies are becoming increasingly worried about information security in social media, but so far, this issue has not been studied. The present research closes this gap by studying the information security challenges social media represents for organizations. The research was conducted as a qualitative case study; eleven information security managers have been interviewed. The study has three main findings. First, challenges arising from employees actions or unawareness in social media (especially reputation damage) seem to represent bigger threats to information security than threats caused by outside attacks. Second, the confusion of private and professional roles in social media represents an information security risk, and distinguishing between these roles becomes more difficult the higher an employee\u27s position in the company. Third, communication with employees and colleagues represents an information security challenge especially when communication is not steered by the company. Implications for research and practice are discussed

New Paths of Attacks: Revealing the Adaptive Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Evolving Cyber Threats Targeting Social Media Users and Their Data

The intersection between artificial intelligence tools and social media has opened doors to numerous opportunities and risks. This research delves into the escalating threat landscape in a society heavily dependent on social media. Despite the efforts by social media companies and cybersecurity professionals to mitigate cyber-attacks, the constant advancements of new technologies render social media platforms increasingly vulnerable. Malicious actors exploit generative AI to collect user data, enhancing cyber threats on social media. Notably, generative AI amplifies phishing attacks, disseminates false information, and propagates propaganda, posing substantial challenges to platform security. Ease access to large language models (LLMs) further complicates the distinction between fake and genuine accounts, as malicious actors employ learned techniques from summarized and translated text to masquerade human communication. This research explores the multiple challenges social media platforms face, including the ingrained human dependence on these platforms, the risk associated with user data, the integration of artificial intelligence, and the evolving landscape of deep fakes. Examining these challenges elucidates the profound implications for the public, emphasizing the critical need for effective countermeasures to safeguard the integrity of social media platforms in the face of these new paths of attacks

Web 2.0 - Haasteet ja mahdollisuudet

Tämä opinnäytetyö kertoo, mitä Web 2.0 on, ottaa esille sen haasteita ja mahdollisuuksia yrityksien liiketoimintaan keskittyneenä ja selvittää kuinka sosiaalisia medioita käytetään erilaisissa yrityksissä. Työ keskittyy myös internetpalveluiden käytettävyyteen. Sosiaaliset mediat ovat internetissä toimivia yhteisöjä, blogeja, video- ja kuvapalveluita, verkkokauppoja ja keskustelupalstoja, joissa internetkäyttäjät pääsevät jakamaan tietoa keskenään. Sosiaaliselle medialle tyypillistä ovat usein päivitettävä informaatio, käyttäjäprofiilit, useidenkin käyttäjien välinen samanaikainen viestintä, multimedian julkaiseminen ja kiinnostusten tai muiden tietojen vertailu. Suurimmat haasteet yrityksille sosiaalisen median käytössä juuri nyt ovat ajan ja resurssien järjestäminen, sivustojen valvonta, asiakkaiden suuri valta, internetkäyttäjien huomion kiinnittäminen sekä tietoturva ja yksityisyysasiat. Parhaimmillaan sosiaalinen media tarjoaa jatkuvan yhteyden asiakkaisiin ja muihin internetkäyttäjiin ympäri maailman ja palvelun, jota on vaivaton päivittää. Internetin sosiaaliset mediat voittavat muut markkinointikanavat alhaisilla kustannuksillaan ja kollektiivisella älykkyydellä. Sosiaaliset mediat ovat vielä toistaiseksi varsin uusi ulottuvuus yritysten liiketoiminnassa, ja vasta kaikista suurimmat yritykset hyödyntävät niitä tehokkaasti.Tämä työ pitää sisällään yrityksiin tehdyn kyselyn, jonka tuloksista ilmenee, että myös pienet yritykset ovat ymmärtäneet sosiaalisen median mahdollisuudet ja ovat halukkaita oppimaan aiheesta lisää.This thesis studied Web 2.0; the challenges and possibilities when using social media in business. The thesis also examined how social media is used in different kind of companies. This thesis also concentrated on the usability of web services.Social media includes online communities, blogs, video and photo services, online stores as well as discussion boards where is possible for internet users to share information with each other. What is typical for social media is often updated information, user profiles, communicating with several users at the same time, publicing multimedia and comparing interests and other information. Right now the biggest challenges that companies face when using social media are arranging time and resources, moderating web pages, customers using the authority given to them, getting the customers to pay attention and information security and privacy aspects. Social media at its best provides a constant connection to customers and other internet users around the world and a service that is effortless to update. The social media of the internet wins against other marketing channels because of the low costs of the web service and collective intelligence. Social media is yet quite a new dimension in business and only the biggest companies use social media effectively. This thesis contains a survey made to companies and according to the results also small companies have understood the possibilities of social media and are willing to learn more about the subject

The versatile use of social media in today's business environment

Nowadays, the use of social media has become essential for many businesses. It helps companies to market themselves, raise their brand awareness and move towards new achievements and experiences. Companies must pay better attention to the changing trends in social media, in order to stay competitive. Social media trends need to be followed and learned accordingly, because gaining success can not happen without challenges. This is a portfolio thesis that contents four previous learning assignments. The purpose is to improve the quality and content of the assignments with additional information. The main aim of this thesis is to fully present opportunities, new trends and alternatives that social media has to offer for small and medium-sized businesses. The theoretical part of this thesis describes paid advertising in social media as well as the effective use of affordable promotional and analytics tools for measuring a company's performance on a social media platform. The importance of different marketing strategies that can be applied to social media operations are also explained in this part. There are four previous learning assignments that are developed and improved in this thesis based on theory on current social media trends and their opportunities. All assignments are somehow related to marketing and social media. The assignments were completed during studies in Haaga-Helia UAS. The first two assignments are indvidual reports from two different modules and they include certain parts that require improvement. The other two final assignments were chosen to support and complement the individual reports. The final assignments present valuable information regarding social media and paid advertising, which was also used in this thesis. The improvements of individual reports were executed by providing suitable and budget-friendly social media platform alternatives for both case companies. Supportive marketing strategies and paid advertising methods were presented as an additional part for reports, where they are considered necessary. In conclusion, the process of improvement created new insights into obstacles that small and medium-sized businesses can face while using social media marketing. The challenges are the unnecessary use of paid advertising and analytics tools as well as weak control of online privacy and security. All of them require proper solutions which is also presented in this thesis. In addition, the use of social media alongside with marketing methods, such SOSTAC and Content Marketing Matrix, appear to be a strong combination and should be used by small and medium-sized businesses

The future of Cybersecurity in Italy: Strategic focus area

This volume has been created as a continuation of the previous one, with the aim of outlining a set of focus areas and actions that the Italian Nation research community considers essential. The book touches many aspects of cyber security, ranging from the definition of the infrastructure and controls needed to organize cyberdefence to the actions and technologies to be developed to be better protected, from the identification of the main technologies to be defended to the proposal of a set of horizontal actions for training, awareness raising, and risk management

Business in the World of Water

The book aims to: 1) clarify and enhance understanding by business of the key issues and drivers of change related to water; 2) promote mutual understanding between the business community and non-business stakeholders on water management issues; and 3) support effective business action as part of the solution to sustainable water management. The report poses three scenarios about the possible future of water in 2025 which serve as catalysts for exploration into how businesses can contribute to sustainable water management

The Data Breach Dilemma: Proactive Solutions for Protecting Consumers’ Personal Information

Data breaches are an increasingly common part of consumers’ lives. No institution is immune to the possibility of an attack. Each breach inevitably risks the release of consumers’ personally identifiable information and the strong possibility of identity theft. Unfortunately, current solutions for handling these incidents are woefully inadequate. Private litigation like consumer class actions and shareholder lawsuits each face substantive legal and procedural barriers. States have their own data security and breach notification laws, but there is currently no unifying piece of legislation or strong enforcement mechanism. This Note argues that proactive solutions are required. First, a national data security law—setting minimum data security standards, regulating the use and storage of personal information, and expanding the enforcement role of the Federal Trade Commission—is imperative to protect consumers’ data. Second, a proactive solution requires reconsidering how to minimize the problem by going to its source: the collection of personally identifiable information in the first place. This Note suggests regulating companies’ collection of Social Security numbers, and, eventually, using a system based on distributed ledger technology to replace the ubiquity of Social Security numbers