Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business IntelligenceIn recent years, the use of social networks has been increasing substantially. As we know, platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest, LinkedIn or Instagram allow millions of individuals to create online profiles and share personal information with several friends through social networks – and, often, it’s possible to do the same with a large amount of strangers.
By itself, social networks should not be considered a cyber threat. However, there are several issues related to maintaining the user’s data security and privacy, especially when they upload personal information, photos and / or videos. The large majority of users ignores the security best practices, which sometimes facilitates the hackers’ attacks.
The main goal of this research is to understand patterns of information that are revealed on online social networks and their privacy implications. The goal is to map people behaviour on social networks and understand if they care about the security of their data exposed on the Internet. This research also aims to understand the impact of cybersecurity in social networks and a comparison of which social network is most concerned with the exposure of its user. It will be also addressed the current defence solutions that can protect social network users from these kinds of threats
