Social network industry started to expand rapidly after the year 1997 where the world first social network site, SixDegrees. com is being introduced to the public. Afterward there were many different types of sites being introduced to public. Social network sites (SNSs) can be define as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system (boyd, d. m. , & Ellison, N.
B. 2007). Nowadays, there is many popular SNSs exist in the market today such as Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, LinkedIn, Pinterest and etc. However in this assignment will only focus on the study of Facebook. This assignment will show the detail features, pros and cons of this typical site. It also included the security issues and precaution step that should be taken before using any of those SNSs. A History of Social Network Sites Based on the definition of SNSs given, the first recognized SNSs is called the SixDegrees. com which allows the users to create profile and list their friend.
The SixDegrees claim itself as a tool that can help people to connect and send messages with one another. In the early stage, SixDegrees have a great success and manage to attract millions of users. However it still failed to be a sustainable business and finally the service close down in 2000. The SixDegrees fail because of complain from early adopters that there was not much thing to do after accepting Friend request and most people doesn’t interested in meeting strangers. A few years later, other SNSs called Friendster was launch in 2002 with the purpose of helping friend-of-friend meet.
Friendster has a huge success in the beginning and grew to 300,000 users in May 2003 but still it goes into a decline stage like others. The massive collecting friend and the “Fakesters” outrage cause many users to leave the sites. From 2003 onward, many new SNSs were launched and trying to replicate the early success of Friendster or target specific demographic such as LinkedIn, Tribe. net and etc. MySpace was begun in 2003. It was introduce with a goal to compete with sites like Friendster, Xanga and AsiaAvenue.
MySpace encouraged rock band or artist to become their users and continues for adding new features based on user’s demand by allowing users to personalize their pages. Unlike the others SNSs, MySpace welcomed teenagers for joining the group making MySpace become a trend among the people on that time. Some SNSs is create to support niche demographic and one of the famous example is the subject ‘‘Facebook’’. The Facebook is invented by Mark Zuckerberg and with the help of three other classmates, Andrew McCollum,Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz.
It was actually designed for Harvard student only and use to compare the picture of student side by sides to determine whether who is ‘‘hotter’’. Then it expanded to support others university students and in 2005, it start to goes into high school and eventually everyone. Facebook’s former headquarters is located in downtown Palo Alto, California. Facebook become so popular that after it introduced to the public, the number of users skyrocketed just within a couple of years. Based on the data give by Facebook itself (newsroom. fb. com), there are more than one billion active users on October 2012.
It also have the most active users compare to others popular SNSs. Basically a user spend almost 405 minutes per month on Facebook and 60% are woman while 40% are men. Facebook is also the top on monthly visit social networking sites with the data of 7012. 9 millions visitors. Detail of Facebook’s Features Features | Description | Status Update| * Allow users to post messages for their friend to read. * Enable users to inform their friend of their current ‘status’ including feeling and action. * This feature first appears in September 2006. | Like | * Is a way to give positive feedback and connect with things peoples care about. User can like mostly everything in Facebook such as photo, comment, status and etc. | Friend | * ‘Friending’ is an action of sending a friend request to another user. The user will have choices whether to accept or decline the request or ‘Not Now’ which allow them to revisit in other time. * After both of the parties accept each another, they will be able to ‘see’ the content in their wall or photo. * User also has a choice to do de-friending by clicking on the un-friend button. | Chat| * This features release in April 23, 2008 where users may chat with others through one to one basis or multiple friend using group features. The users had the ability to make live voice calls via Facebook Chat since April 2011. | Messages and inbox| * A user is free to send messages to any of the friends at a time.
* The new ‘Facebook Messages’ perform duty similar to an e-mail like attaching document or photo. | Poke| * It was actually created for attract the attention of another users. However people interpret ‘poke’ in many different way that even started a poke war where people reciprocate pokes back and forth until one side gives up| Time line| * Is a new virtual space where all of the content will be organized and shown. The photo, comment and status will be arranged base on the time it’s created or uploaded. | Subscribe | * Subscribe button was launch in September 14, 2011 which allow the user to follow public update. * However the user wouldn’t be able to see the private content of users being subscribed. | Credits| * Facebook credits are a virtual currency that allow user to buy gifts or virtual goods in Facebook games. | Smartphone| * Many new Smart phones in the market offer access to Facebook either through web browser or application. * Users now are not necessary need a computer to check on their Facebook. Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking Sites Advantages | Disadvantages| Act as a platform for social connectionSNSs enable user to interact with other in an easier and cheaper way through chat, messages or status update. It acts as a place that allows users to express their feeling or thought freely. Users are able to interact with friend by ‘comment’ or ‘like’ the thing that being uploads. User also tends to share common thought or ideas with peoples. | Time consuming A user averagely spend 405 minutes per month on facebook which equivalent to 6. 75 hours.
The key of SNSs supposed to be having fun and making friend but many user spend times stalking people in SNSs or play meaningless games. | Create positive self imageUsers are able to create their own images by showing their best qualities through SNSs profile. The profile may help to build up user reputation if it were use in a proper ways. | Judgment of people through SNSsThe society may judge a person through their action in SNSs. Especially parent may judge their children’s friend through SNSs. In order to protect their reputation user may lie in the profile in order to create a better image such as education, career or even family. Low CostOnline social networking is cheaper than other communication tool or mostly free. User just need to pay for internet connection fees only in order to perform communication through SNSs. | SafetySafety issues about SNSs have being discussed for a long time. Personal information and current action of user are easily exposed to others. Photo or status that being uploaded will exist in SNSs forever even though we erase it immediately. | Connection The friend in SNSs may have other friend that is totally a stranger to the user. By using SNSs, user can connected with these people. It serves as a new ways to find new friends. Cyber BullyingWith the advance of technology, bullying no longer only about hitting or teasing anymore. Bullies use SNSs to spread untrue rumors and information of their victim. The rumors can spread very fast by sharing it to others friend. Victim who couldn’t take the pressure normally did the wrong decision like suicide or hurting itself. | Long lost friendSNSs are a best way to find long lost friend who probably move out of town of study abroad. Users just have to type in the name of their friend and click the search button to find their long lost friend. This method surprisingly consists of a very high probability of success. AddictionTeenager who is addicted tends to spend more time on SNSs. Even though they have nothing else to do with the sites but they just don’t want to close it and keep scrolling down to see the previous news. People that are addicted feel they must open the sites at least once a day to update or post something new. | Teacher and Student interactionSNSs are a new way for teacher and student interaction. Student able to ask question or discuss project with teacher using SNSs. Student may also consider as a channel to talk about things they don’t want to talk about at school such as bullying or family violent. Waste of moneySNSs encouraged users to buy its currency in order to buy gift or virtual goods for games which is totally meaningless and doesn’t bring any benefits. The money could be use on other better purposes. | Security Issues about Social Networking Sites SNSs are all the rage these day and people spend countless or hours on it for sharing of everything including photo, video or messages. Because these SNSs are open for everyone, hence there is threat appear to every users. Cyber-criminal likes to target those web surfers on popular SNSs by stalking their profile or misuse their information.
For example a photo of a girl may being download for improper website like porn. There are some features being built to help user to secure their profile from exploited such as privacy setting that restricted for friend only. If the user doesn’t use these features then he will get a high change of information leak. The information, photo or video being uploaded is permanently store in the database of SNSs. There is an issue on Facebook where one rumor that Facebook was scanning private user messages to equate conversation with page “likes”, and another that claimed private messages were being posted to public-facing user timelines.
Personal information that display to everyone without any restriction is also very dangerous. Most of the users have a thought of ‘I’ve got nothing to hide, so it doesn’t worry me’. However, there are many case happen where the user post his current location or information to public and the criminal who see these plan according to the information. The criminal know exactly of user’s daily routine and aim to strike on that period of time. The criminal might also know the important information like credit card number or bank account number through SNSs. Precautions when using any of the social networking sites
In order to avoid all of the danger aspect, as a user of SNSs, should utilize the privacy setting to control who can access to user’s personal information. The first step is don’t let anyone else know the password to the profile and if possible use a longer password with the combination of letter and numbers. Personal account is private and if other people know the password he or she might use it in a bad way. User should limit usage of SNSs for personal use only. They should avoid writing some privacy matter such as address, work issues or college they are studying.
They have to assume that everyone in the world will be able to see what they have written. Thirdly, avoid login in SNSs from public computer such as cyber cafe and library because someone might installed a key logger which means they can login in to user’s page later on. These place isn’t safe because it fill with different stranger that may be a criminal looking for victims. Most importantly, the user shouldn’t simply accept everyone as friend. There is no prize for the profile with the most friends. Therefore, as a wise user, they should know who are their friends and verify their identity because they might be an imposter.
Lastly, a wise user should always ensure the computer is up to date and has a good antivirus protection because SNSs are often target of malware attack. With better protection software it can help to prevent from many undesired things to happen. Conclusion A s a conclusion, although there is many potential threat of using SNSs but this is not that it told us not to use this technology but instead, we should use it wisely. It takes many years of effort to develop successful SNSs like Facebook and Twitter. It consists of many splendid features that make our life become more comfortable and easy.
It helps the society to communicate with each other more easily and effectively. However if the user doesn’t use this technology right, then it could be a disaster. References 1. Benphoster. com (2004) How Many Users on Facebook? – by Ben Foster. [online] Available at: http://www. benphoster. com/facebook-user-growth-chart-2004-2010/ [Accessed: 27 Jan 2013]. 2. Jcmc. indiana. edu (2005) Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. [online] Available at: http://jcmc. indiana. edu/vol13/issue1/boyd. ellison. html [Accessed: 23 Jan 2013]. 3. Pacific. du (2013) Online Social Networking Dangers and Benefits. [online] Available at: http://www. pacific. edu/Campus-Life/Safety-and-Conduct/Safety-and-Security/Online-Social-Networking-Dangers-and-Benefits-. html [Accessed: 22 Jan 2013]. 4. Revesnetwork. net (n. d. ) Social Network Security Issues. [online] Available at: http://www. revesnetwork. net/european-network/social-network-security-issues. html [Accessed: 23 Jan 2013]. 5. Web Design Dubai – Dubai Web Design and Web Application Development Company (2012) User Activity Comparison Of Popular Social Networking Sites [Infographic]. online] Available at: http://www. go-gulf. com/blog/social-networking-user/ [Accessed: 25 Jan 2013]. 1355 Words Appendix Mobile devices, social networks to remain security targets in 2013: Sourcefire By Patrick Budmar January 15, 2013 — IDG News Service — The greatest challenge for today’s security infrastructure and methods of protection is advanced malware attacks.
When having discussions with customers in 2012, Sourcefire A/NZ regional director, Chris Wood, said they were struggling to find effective protection against these threats “without overburdening or sacrificing operational efficiency. Learn how smart CIOs are protecting customers from security breaches “Many malicious threats now hone in on their victims, disguise themselves to evade defenses, hide for extended periods and then launch their attacks at any time,” he said. Due to this new level of sophistication, Wood expects businesses to look for security solutions that will help combat the threat before, during and after an attack. The good news is that security technologies will continue to get better at combating threats. Such security effectiveness is raising the bar and forcing the bad guys to dig deep and use advanced malware, targeted attacks and new attack vectors to try to circumvent existing protection methods,” Wood said. Targeting of mobile platforms was a hot topic in the security space in 2012, and as the popularity of mobile devices continue to increase, Wood expects cybercriminals to continue changing their tactics to target consumers are less aware of security risks. To back up his claim, Wood points out how malware targeting Android based devices has increased, by some accounts, by nearly 500 per cent since 2011. Given the lack of even basic visibility as to what is running on your mobile platform, most IT security teams certainly do not have the capability to identify potential threats from these devices,” he said. This spread is no doubt helped by the increased use of employee-owned mobile devices in accessing company systems, which in turn increases the threat the company’s network. “Smart phones and mobile devices now carry a lot of data, which can be stolen should the device be misplaced or lost putting the company’s data at risk,” Wood said.
The issue with employee-owned mobile devices, more commonly known as the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement, is that they that access corporate resources outside of the control of the corporate IT function. This means it can be difficult to identify even basic environmental data for these devices, such as the number and type of devices being used, and the operating systems and applications. However, despite these pitfalls, Wood does not advocate banning BYOD strategies outright. For most enterprises, the right solution is to implement BYOD policies that clearly define the proper use of employee-owned devices in the enterprise,” he said. Beware the social Social networking sites have become the target as distribution hubs for malicious code, and this will likely continue into 2013. “Devices that have access to the enterprise need to be routinely updated with the latest security programs,” Wood said. “Enterprises need to understand what is running on their network in order to protect their digital assets. ” Some popular ways hackers have attacked the services is by
