Social Network as Facebook is Not Safe from Hackers Essay

Social Network as Facebook is Not Safe from Hackers - Essay Example Social networks such as Facebook result to the interconnection of millions of people from all over the world thus bringing diversities and similarities in close interactions. In this regard, Facebook offers an effective opportunity for people from different backgrounds to identify their similarity and therefore converge through chart rooms and groups or pages; for instance, the Facebook group of people opposed to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia is one such example of how people of similar interests converge on social media. However, this joining of different people with similar interests makes such individuals in those groups vulnerable to different forms of abuses at the same time. Hackers with ill intentions of compromising and sabotaging information communication systems have emerged and greatly undermined the reliability and security of information, and Facebook, like other communication systems, is not safe from hacker activities. Hacking refers to the unwarranted acc ess of other people’s online databases and directories; hackers are targeting personal information in personal Facebook accounts such as passwords, confidential data, secrets, among other things, with malicious intentions whose sole purpose is to harm the victims, thus breaching individual privacy on social networks. With the growing number of internet users, the highly porous nature of information systems, and features of service providers including the social networking sites that make it possible for unwanted users to access other peoples’ databases, social networks as Facebook are not safe from hackers. There are numerous reasons and explanations why Facebook is not safe from hackers; for instance, nowadays there is increasing use of social network for business transactions and advertising, even though the platform is strictly meant for personal relationships (Lu?sted 10). In this case, hackers abuse social network as businesses by stealing vital information such a s company trade secrets or operational blue prints thereby compromising the businesses. Investigations into cybercrimes are curtailed by the mere fact that the internet has transformed the world into a global village thus allowing hackers to commit crimes from any location of the world and go scot-free. Cyberspace security has also been largely compromised by the increasing internet population in addition to the aspect of anonymity that allows users to disguise themselves on social networks such as Facebook using fake account details while seeking to commit cybercrimes. New inexperienced Facebook users are particularly vulnerable to hacker attacks because they are yet to learn how to utilize the complex security features of the internet on the platform. Hackers can take advantage of the privileged personal information stolen from private accounts on Facebook to cause untold havoc and damage to personal and business relations; for instance, hackers may impersonate individuals to comm it cybercrimes or damage reputations of individuals. Perhaps the most serious consequence suffered by victims of hacking activities is the loss or destruction of vital information thereby compromising the entire systems network. Research Statistics provide evidence of the hackers and hacker activities, for instance, a recent research by the Privacy Clearing House reports indicate that over 1oo million records have been compromised since February 2005, and over 80 million cases were due to web hacking attacks. A similar research at Acunetix reports findings that about 75% of cyberspace attacks occur at the web