Research Questions
The foremost determination of the process is to focus on the importance of the social media security which is very much needed for the protection of the assets stored and managed by different types of social media platforms from the internal and external threats (Ngai, Tao and Moon 2015). Every business organization who have their activities on the social media have different types of security issues like internal threats such as human errors and privacy settings and external threats such as the involvement of the thirds party applications, cybersecurity threats and imposter accounts which can have an impact on the reputation of the organization, those issues can be solved purposefully with the use of effective social media strategy (Wang, Pauleen and Zhang 2016). There are different types of social media platforms which can be used for business purposes as well for personal use such as hangouts, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter and Tumbler.
Social media strategy is one of the one important aspects of the business organization which have their online social media units for business purposes (Housto et al. 2015). Security threats of the social media can come from the new technology incorporated into the social media platform. User accounts of each of the stakeholders who uses their accounts to update their work on a daily basis. Networking threats can be the other type of threat associated with the social media units of a business (Wamba and Akter 2016). The equipment’s used for accessing the social media platform and the contents used in the social media platforms are the other threats which are the reason for maintaining the social media strategies.
The question which will be useful to understand the selected topic of this paper are as followings:
- What are the security threats associated to the use of the social media?
- What are the effective strategies which are needed to be considered for safeguarding the activities in the social media?
The main determination of this unit of the paper is to focus on the method by which this research will be conducted is secondary data collection method which is from the books, peer-reviewed journals and websites. Reliable sources will be used for conducting the research of this paper as it will enhance the effectiveness of the paper. There are very less ethical issues associated with this type of research methodology as there were issues like authenticity and authorizations issues in the primary data collection methods.
The collected data helps in understand the effectiveness of the social media strategies used for the security issues faced by different business organizations. It was found that the implementation of the social media strategies has lots of issues associated with them such as the social, ethical, legal and professional issues which are needed to be considered so that the effectiveness of the strategy can be obtained. The desired results of the strategies can be achieved if the issues related to those strategies can be resolved or minimized to a significant image (Wamba and Carter 2016). The social media platforms which are often integrated with the information systems have different types of issues associated to them, these issues often tend to have a positive and negative impact on the industry in terms of business profit and business loss (Zolait et al. 2014). There are different kinds of security laws both in UK and Europe to save companies from both internal and external threats such as the Data Protection Act of 1998. The law is applied across UK which protects the data which are transported from one system to another within an organization or outside the organization. The newly incorporated General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the English markets helps the business organization to protect their data from external threats such as cybersecurity threats such as the ransomware. Crisis management is the other significant aspect of the security protocols associated with social media (Kumaraguru 2016). The security laws which are incorporated by the business organization have numerous beneficial contenders associated with them such as the followings:
Research Methodology
End-users: The operators of the information system, internet service providers of the social media strategies and the customers are most impacted positively with the help of the security laws (Vromen, Xenos and Loader 2015).
Vendors: The external stakeholders of any business organization always feels secured if the organization follows few security protocols as that regulation provides a sense of security to both the two types of stakeholders (Imran et al. 2015.). It can be also said that the regulation may boost the overall growth and development of the organization.
Governments: The security laws often have an impact on the decision making and purchase decisions which are required very much to maintain security in the business organization.
The main determination of this unit of the paper is to focus on the positive and negative impacts of information technology on social media and security. One of the most significant advantages of information technology on social media strategies are the cutting of the extra costs associated with the business process (Heartfield and Loukas 2016). There is no need for manual communication for the stakeholders of the business as IT provides a secure medium of communication which obeys all the professional ethics (Njenga 2018). The other significant impact of IT in social media strategies is the protection of information with the help of facilities such as cloud. Printed copies of advertisements are a significant achievement of IT across different business organizations (Gonzalez 2014). The business organizations use effective feedback platforms which very much used for increasing the sales of the company. CRM or customer relationship management has an impact on the social media unit of the business processes.
However, there are lots of issues such as the threats coming from cybersecurity problems like Ransomware it can have a direct negative on the growth and productivity of the organisation as well as for the reputation of the organisation (White 2016). The other negative impact of information technology on social media security are the media fatigue and the devolvement of the damage control operations due to unethical practices of the hackers and scammers. The other limitation of information technology is the copyright issues of the products and service offered by the business organizations.
The main objective of this unit of the paper is to focus on the social issues of the social media platform. The social issues associated with the impact of information technology are the rights of the stakeholders associated to the business (Cummins and Martin 2015). The use of the third party open source platforms are the other forms of social issues associated with the incorporation of the information technology. The other significant social issue associated with social media security is the impact of using information technology in the form of globalization.
The main aim of this unit of the paper is to highlight the ethical issues of social media security (Gerbaudo 2018). Telecommuting is the other significant impact of information technology on social media security. Violation of intellectual property is the other type of ethical issues associated with social media security. The absence of professional certifications are the other types of ethical issues associated with social media security (Gritzalis et al. 2014). The rules and regulations of the government also have a considerable amount of ethical issues associated with them such as the privacy of the employees which are sometimes compromised while maintaining the security protocols.
Discussion and Analysis
The main determination of this unit of the paper is to focus on the legal issue of social media security. There are lots of legal issues associated with the social media security which are not there in the open meetings (Rauniar et al. 2014). Involvement is the main legal issue of the social media strategy. Face to face communications are sometimes very much important for taking any kinds of business decision which is lacking in the use of the social media as face to face communication are not possible in the social media platforms (Zhang and Gupta 2016). Data security is the other legal problem associated with the application of social media in business processes.
The foremost determination of this unit of the paper is to focus on the legislative issues of social media security. The government rules and regulations are not always met in the decisions taken in the social media platforms which is one of the most important legal concern of social media security. The freedom of information laws are the other legislative issues associated with social media security (Sunstein 2018). Use of any new characteristic feature in the social media platform according to the needs and requirements of the associated stakeholders of this business organization has numerous social issues associated with them as it may have a direct negative impact on the other users as well (Tayouri 2015). Industry standards which are needed to be discussed in the open forums are not always available in the social media platforms and the security issues of the platforms associated with the social media strategy restrict those practices.
The paper helps in understanding the different aspects of social media security such as its impact on the business organization. According to me, the implementation of social media should be given much more important than the platform itself. I believe that the incorporation of social media can be very much beneficial to the business organization, I also feel that there are lots of issues associated with the use of social media platforms. According to me, those ethical issues can be categorised into three categories such as legislative issues, social and legal issues. I think that these issues have to be understood by the management team of the business organization so that it is easier for them to implement them among the internal and the external stakeholders of the organization. According to me, the issue associated with the legislative issue is the government regulations which are needed to be maintained so that sustainable development can be achieved. The policies formed by the government bodies are the most negative impact on ethical issues among the other two types of ethical issues discussed in the paper. According to me, social issues such as the impact of the security of social media among the employees of the organization are also very much important.
According to me, I can identify the threats associated with the incorporation of the social media and the security issues associated with it. This paper was very much helpful to understand the positive impact of the information technology in the social media security such as the cutting of the extra costs associated with the real offline mode marketing strategies which are not applicable in the social media platforms. According to me, like every other platform, this platform also has different issues coming from both inside and outside the organization which are needed to be considered so that the desired changes can be obtained. I also believe that the communication platform which is provided by the extensive development in the field of information technology may lead to insecure data transmission process. The cybersecurity issues such as the attack of the Wanny-Cry ransomware can have a direct negative impact on the social media security of a business organization. The effective social media security can also solve the issues such as the adverse business conditions such as inflation or recession for which the organization can be negatively impacted. According to me, effective social media security is important to as it helps in maintaining a good relationship with the clients of the business organization, I also believe that the customer relationship management which sometimes works on social media platforms should be very much secured. Thus I can conclude that social media security can help every organization to deal with different kinds of internal and external threats for which the growth and productivity may depend.
Social Issues
The followings points can be summarised after going through the paper.
- There are different types of security threats associated with the use of social media for business purposes
- The risk management techniques are very much required to deal with the security issues of social media.
- There are different types of ethical issues associated with social media security such as legislative issues, social issues and legal issues.
- There are lots of security laws in the UK and across to protect the assets of the organization those laws.
Conclusion
From the above paper, it can be social media security is very important for all organization which deals which deal with structured and unstructured data. The different types of social media platforms which can be actively used for different types of purposes but it can be also understood that there are different types of security issues associated with those platforms. The issues may range from connectivity issues to security issues. The discussed security laws such as the Data Protection Act of 1998 and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are not always enough to contain the security threats so there is a need of an effective IT governance plan for the use of the social media for dedicated business processes. It can be also concluded that their lots of ethical issues associated with the security issues such as the legal issues, legislative issues and the social issues and each of the issues need to be considered while implementing the IT governance plan.
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