Online social networks to online social malworks — The evolution of an industry

Abstract

In the past few years, the Online Social Network (OSN) industry has revolutionised the way in which information, often of a personal nature, is stored, shared and accessed by millions of online users. This has been used to the advantage of many individuals and even organisations, but it has also been abused by cyber criminals. We examine a few examples of how cyber criminals have adapted cyber crimes to survive on OSNs and also look at the possible motives of cyber criminals. After investigating some of the concerns that the Internet has introduced to the safety of online user information, we look at the possibility of harnessing the social nature of OSNs to combating cyber crimes through improved user awareness. We conclude by highlighting the fact that the sheer volume of users on OSNs combined with the right security awareness campaign could simplify the task of spreading security-related information - it can be as simple as making a status update from being “uninformed” to “informed”.