What is a social media score?

Information Security

In the last 3-4 years, the topic of information security and privacy on social networks has received a lot of attention. This is understandable: fraud prevention, networks are increasingly opening up to the outside world, there have been cases of personal data leaks, user accounts are easily hacked, and the network administration has access to any information. But all this is only the outer part, which lies on the surface and which the press writes about, but it is far from a complete picture of potential threats to personal data.

The most harmless, at first glance, option of using personal data without the user's permission can be considered the internal mechanisms of social networks for displaying targeted ads, selecting potential acquaintances or selecting potentially interesting content. These mechanisms have become the standard in almost all social networks, and no one hides this fact: they all collect and analyze personal data, which is a lot on any network, and then use it for commercial purposes. Moreover, social networks transmit personal data to the outside world, and have already officially  recognized this fact  .

More problems for users are created by a leak of personal data due to the fault of the network, which has repeatedly happened in different projects. One of the largest was the leak of personal data of 77 million users of the PlayStation Network in April 2011, and the consequences of this incident are not yet fully understood, perhaps there is a leak of user payment data . There are always many security problems and it is likely that most of these leaks are simply hidden from the public.

Even more serious problems can be caused by hacking of individual accounts and gaining access to all personal information of an individual user, if the target of the attackers is a specific person. To do this today is not difficult even for an ordinary user who just knows a person and can use social engineering, and besides there are special services for hacking, the cost of this is only $ 20. The motivation of attackers can be very different, from hacking the accounts of officials of a certain company for the purpose of industrial espionage to personal goals. For example, US marriage lawyers now record  every fifth divorce due to social networks  : spouses get access to a partner's profile, find correspondence with a lover / mistress there, and as a result, social media score, this leads to a divorce.

We should also remember about viruses and phishing, which can steal logins and passwords unnoticed by the user and then use them for illegal actions (for example, automatically sending spam on behalf of the user).

However, the biggest threat is that a fairly large group of people have access to all personal information, and they can view it at any time, even if the person has deleted something from the network. Firstly, these are employees of the social network itself: they have access to databases that contain all the information, as well as special tools for logging into user accounts, such as a special master password on.

Addiction

Internet addiction has long been a recognized psychological illness, and social media addiction is a new form. The reasons for this phenomenon are quite understandable: each person has explicit and latent needs that he seeks to satisfy, it may be the need for communication, self-realization, saving time, or something else, and the social network gives a feeling of satisfaction of these needs. And all this seems very accessible, just write a beautiful quote and 10 people answer you; it is worth uploading a new photo and 10 people will tell you how beautiful you are; it is worth making a couple of clicks and a new and interesting acquaintance is already in friends ... However, in fact, this is a departure from reality, a substitution of the real for the virtual, which only gives a feeling of satisfaction of needs, but in fact the Internet cannot replace real life,

This addiction gradually develops in many people who once got into the social network. A person “gets hooked on the net”, and the more time he uses it, the more difficult it is for him to live a real life. It is difficult to feel this, you need to get away from the computer for a few days, and only then a whole bunch of feelings will arise, ranging from a strong desire to go to the Internet and ending with serious depression, these are the symptoms of addiction. Addiction leads to many problems: complexes, depression, fears, mood swings and even sexual disorders appear.

This is a psychological disease and, like any disease, requires treatment. Treating any psychological problem is difficult, much less addiction. First of all, you need to realize that there is a problem and acknowledge it for yourself. The second step in the treatment should be the replacement of virtual communication with real one, and gradually, personal data fraud, with the help of friends and relatives, it will be possible to recover.