Security Issues of Social Networking Sites

Security Issues of Social Networking Sites C. Divya Gowri, K. Rajalakshmi, PG Scholar, S.Suresh AbstractSocial Networking Sites (SNS) are a platform to build social relationship or social networks among people. It is web-based service which allows people to create public profiles; it is similar to online community. The only difference is social network service is individual centred whereas online community is group centred. It groups the individuals into specific groups for communication purpose. Millions of people like to meet other people, share and gather information, share information about their work like cooking, finding employment, e-business, e-commerce, etc., SNS involves getting access to the website you wish to socialize. Once you are granted, you can read the profile pages of others and even contact them. These SNS has greatest impact on the people who use them. Today billions of people across the world have their profiles in social networking sites. SNS becomes reason for addiction and anxiety. It starts affecting the personal relationship. This paper focuses on th e impacts of these social networking sites. Key Tems: Social Networking Sites, Personal privacy, Security issues. I. Introduction Social Networks [13] involves use of Internet to connect the users with their family, friends and acquaintances. Web-based social networking services connect people to share interests and activities across political, economic, and geographic borders. Online Social Networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace have become popular in recent years. Social Networks have become a personal fabric of the world. In such SNS, each of your Followers (Twitter) or Friends (Facebook) will be friend with your other friends just like in real world. The connection between people is not one-on-one but a network of connection. These social networks keep track of all interactions used by their users on their sites and save them for later use. It allows users to meet new people, stay in touch with friends, and discuss about everything including jokes, politics, news, etc., Using Social networking sites marketers can directly reach customers, this is not only benefit for the marketers but it also benefits the users as they get more information about the organization and the product. There is absolutely no doubt that online social networks have become part of every individual. Though the use of these SNS is increasing day by day, the users are not aware of risks associated with updating sensitive information. Facts prove that majority of people post information like photos, share location unaware of security and privacy concerns. SNS definitely needs many security policies to keep user’s information secured. II. Literature Survey 2.1 Privacy Issues Security Risks With the use of SNSs, the security risks [4] [12] associated is also increasing rapidly. Some of the risks include cyber stalking, phishing, location disclosure, identity theft, Phreaking, Spoofing, Doxing, spam issue, profile cloning, fake product sale and cyber bullying. People provide their personal data while creating account on SNSs like Facebook, Twitter, etc. The secured data is stored in SNS and because of poor security; the data stored are not secure. Cyber Stalking It is the use of SNS to harass/stalk an individual, group or organization. It includes monitoring, vandalism [15], and gathering of information that may be used to threaten the SNS users. Phishing Phishing [7] is attempting to acquire sensitive information like username, password, and credit card information by masquerading through SNS. Location Disclosure SNS can disclose user’s information [10]. An application named ‘creepy’ can track location of the user on a map by photos uploaded in Flicker or Twitter. Identity Theft Some hackers attack through application in which they ask permission for accessing their profile of SNS (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). When SNS users allow doing so, hackers get all information so that they can misuse users’ information without their knowledge or permission. Phreaking It is gaining unauthorized access to a user’s profile. It is advisable not to give phone numbers, passwords that provide direct access to a user’s profile. Spoofing Some attackers deceive computers by faking one’s identity. IP spoofing masks or hides computer’s IP address. Doxing It is publicly posting a person’s identity including full name, address, pictures, date of birth typically retrieved from any social sites. Spam Issues SNS is widely spread with spam. It includes message spam and content spam [5] [6]. Spammers attack legitimate users account and post unwanted messages/comment on their wall or send those content to their friends so that the reputation of the legitimate users is spoiled. Profile Cloning Profile Cloning [3][8] is that the hackers retrieve the profile information of the SNSs users and make a clone of the profile. They make this clone to spoil the reputation of the users. This is one of the most popular risks associated with the SNSs and it is also done without the permission or knowledge of the SNS user. Another form of profile cloning is â€Å"Cross-site profile cloning†. In this method, hackers steal information from one social site and make this information to create a profile in another SNS. Fake Product Sale The hackers advertise on the SNSs for selling products by offering huge discount and free products. When users try to purchase these products, they are asked to provide account information which is retrieved by attackers and they misuse the information. Cyber bullying Cyber bullies [10] often post information that spoils the reputation of a SNS user; also they spread lies about them, write hateful comments, and upload disgusting photos or abusive images. 2.2 Attacking scenarios Click Jacking In this type of attack, attackers post videos and when the users click on the page, some malicious actions takes place. This type of attack is common in Facebook where users like a page or a picture or a video and the users are trapped. Content Based Image Retrieval In this attack [9], the attackers match the patterns of images associated with the profile of the SNS users so that attackers know the current location of a user. De-Anonymization Attack In this De-Anonymization attack [1] the user’s anonymity can be revealed by history stealing and group membership information. Neighbourhood attack In this attacker [2] finds the neighbors of the victim node. Based on user’s profile and personal information, attackers are attracted by user’s personal information like their name, date of birth, contact information, relationship status, current work and education background. There can be leakage of information because of poor privacy settings. Many profiles are made public to others i.e. anyone can view their profile. Next is leakage of information through third party application. Social networking sites provide an Application Programming Interface (API) for third party developers to create applications. Once users access these applications the third party can access their information automatically. Malicious Software updates An attacker may deliver malicious software to update the system. This may be used to disrupt computer system, obtain sensitive information or gain access to any private information. Evil Twin Attack In this attack [11], it allows attackers to impersonate people or companies in SNS. This is used for the purpose of financial gain, physical crimes, defamation and information gathering. The attackers create a twin profile in the name of other person (legitimate user) and send friend request or messages to get money or just gather information. 2.3 Prevention strategies Internet is always â€Å"Public† SNS users post anything on the internet and it is always available in public. Thus it is user’s responsibility to post information that users are comfortable with. This may include their personal information and photos in which users are tagged in. Also once when users post information online, it cannot be deleted. Even if the information is deleted from a site, cached copy remains on the World Wide Web. Limit the amount Always limit the amount of personal information you post. Do not disclose private information such as your residential address, contact number, etc. Assess your settings Users must be aware of their privacy settings. The default settings of the site will allow anyone to see your profile. But you can customize your settings to restrict certain people from seeing your profile. Be cautious of Third party applications Some third party applications will ask for your private information while you run those applications. Avoid running those applications that are suspicious and limit the amount of information that the applications can access. Create secure passwords provide your account with passwords which are hard to be guessed. If user’s password is compromised, somebody may access your account and pretend to be like you without your knowledge. Always provide different passwords for different accounts which may confuse the cyber criminals. Combine upper and lower case letters with symbols and numbers to create secure passwords. Change your passwords frequently. Activate your firewall Firewalls are considered as the first line of cyber defence. They block connections to unknown sites and will protect the system from viruses and hackers. Avoid being scammed Prevent viruses/malware infecting your system by installing and frequently updating antivirus software. Beware of things you post Whatever you post online, it remains in cache even if you are not able to see. It is advisable to think before posting pictures that you don’t want your employers or parents to see. Know your friends Online friends should not be taken as real friends unless you know them personally. Beware of what you share with those strange friends. Install from Trusted source- Install applications or software’s that comes from well- known or trusted sites. Remember that free software may come with malware. Once you install an application, keep it up-to-date. If you no longer use an application, delete it. Avoid Wi-Fi spots Avoid accessing your personal accounts from public computers like Internet centres or through public Wi-Fi spots. It is always preferred to use high security settings on any SNS. IV. CONCLUSION SNS have become a likely target for attackers due to sensitive information available. The growth of social networking sites shows tremendous changes in personal and social behavior of internet users. It has become an essential medium of communication and an entertainment among adults. Though it affects the daily activities of the users, many cyber crime activities evolved, the popularity of such sites are not going to reduce. SNS can be used for sales and marketing, but the security risks can put a company or individual in a compromising position. Many cyber laws have to be fortified so that cyber criminals cannot escape from committing a crime. Many SNS are implementing different security mechanisms to SNS users. Also users must be careful and prevent themselves from being attacked. V. REFERENCES [1] Gilbert Wondracek, Thorsten Holz, Engin Kirda, and Christopher Kruegel, â€Å" Practical Attack to De-anonymize Social Network Users,† IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, 2010, pp.223-238. [2] Bin Zhou and Jian Pei, â€Å"Preserving Privacy in Social Networks Against Neighborhood Attacks,† Data Engineering, 2008. ICDE 2008. IEEE 24th International Conference on, Apr. 2008, pp.506-515. [3] M. Balduzzi, C. Platzer, T. Holz, E. Kirda, D. Balzarotti, and C. Kruegel, â€Å"Abusing Social Networks for Automated User Profiling,† Symposium on Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection (RAID), vol. 6307, Sep. 2010, pp. 422-441. [4] Dolvara Gunatilaka, â€Å"A Survey of Privacy and Security Issues in Social Networks†, http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cse57111/ftp/social/index.html [5] Garrett Brown, Travis Howe, Micheal Ihbe, Atul Prakash, and Kevin Borders, â€Å"Social networks and context-aware spam,† CSCW 08 Proceedings of the 2008 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, 2008, pp.403-412. http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~aprakash/papers/cscw08_socialnetworkspam.pdf. [6] B. Markines, C. Cattuto and F. Menczer, Social Spam Detection,Proc. 5th Intl Workshop Adversarial Information Retrieval on the Web(AIRWeb 09), ACM Press, 2009, pp. 41–48. [7]T.N. Jagatic et al., Social Phishing,Comm. ACM,vol. 50, no. 10, 2007, pp. 94–100. [8] Khayyambashi, M.R.; Rizi, F.S. An approach for detecting profile cloning in online social networks,e-Commerce in Developing Countries: With Focus on e-Security (ECDC), 2013 7th Intenational Conference on,On page(s): 1 – 12. [9] A. Acquisti and R. Gross† Imagined Communities Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on the Facebook†. In 6th Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, June 2006. [10] D. Rosenblum., â€Å"What Anyone Can Know. In The Privacy Risks of Social Networking Sites†, IEEE Security and Privacy, 2007. [11] Carl Timm,Richard Perez, â€Å"Seven Deadliest Social Network Attacks†, Syngress/Elsevier, 2010 [12] Dwyer, C., Hiltz, S. R., Passerini, K. â€Å"Trust and privacy concern within social networking sites: A comparison of Facebook and MySpace†. Proceedings of AMCIS 2007, Keystone, CO. Retrieved September 21, 2007 [13] D. D. Boyd and N. B. Ellison, ;Social Network Sites: Definition, History and Scholarship,; Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 13, pp. 210-230, 2007. [14] P. Heymann, G. Koutrika and H. Garcia-Molina, Fighting Spam on Social Web Sites: A Survey of Approaches and Future Challenges,IEEE Internet Computing,vol. 11, no. 6, 2007, pp. 36–45. [15]W. Xu, F. Zhang and S. Zhu, Toward Worm Detection in Online Social Networks,Proc. 26th Ann. Computer Security Applications Conf.(ACSAC 10), ACM Press, 2010, pp. 11–20.

Relationship Between Money and Happiness

Preface First, people could not be without money. That is, if people out of money, people have no happiness lives with. Money is the foundation of live, for if there is no money, people cannot survive. If people cannot survive, how can there be happiness at all. Second, money is not everything. Most of the happiness could not be brought by money. For example, Bill Gates cannot enjoy the happiness of escape from a disaster, cannot enjoy the happiness of be a world champion, cannot enjoy the happiness of win the gold medal, cannot enjoy the happiness of families reunion, cannot enjoy the happiness of be a president. Money only slightly associated with happiness In fact, when people have enough of money, the happiness people gain become less and less. It is majority people unexpected, but this is the fact that Western countries live for decades. Experts in the West confirmed a fact: â€Å"If you made a graph of American life since the end of World War II, every line concerning money and the things that money can buy would soar upward, a statistical monument to materialism. Inflation-adjusted income per American has almost tripled, such as per capita income, real income, lifetime, housing area, the per capita car number, the number of telephone calls each year, the number of trips per year, the highest degree IQ scores. No matter how you chart the trends in earning and spending, everything is up, up, up. But if you made a chart of American happiness since the end of World War II, the lines would be as flat as a marble tabletop. Almost everything is getting better, but people did not feel happier. Yale University political science professor Robert †¢ Portland found that if you charted the incidence of depression since 1950, the lines suggest a growing epidemic. Money jangles in our wallets and purses as never before, but we are basically no happier for it, and for many, more money leads to depression. Correlation between money and happiness- 0. 25 Many scholars have been extensive, large-scale sample survey concluded. Concluded that: money and happiness is not the way people think proportional, neither the happier the more wealthy people, the more money the less happy people. The relationship between them is minimal, with scholars jargon, the relationship between them is only â€Å"slightly positive. † The psychology of money, this book made a quantifiable figure on the relationship between money and happiness – † there have been a number of studies of this relationship, and they all come up with a correlation of about 0. 25 † This book use x-axis and y-axis, the mathematics way, visually describe the relationship between money and happiness: assuming that use y-axis draw the satisfaction of happiness, and use x-axis describe the amount of money. The intersection of two axes is the starting point of zero. And then make a mark on y-axis at 0. 25, which is limit value of the correlation between money and happiness. When people's incomes are low, the satisfaction of happiness is very low indeed. When people are without money, the satisfaction of happiness is almost close to zero. Once people just out of the poverty line, the curve which describe the relationship between money and happiness will rush up almost touch the 0. 25 line. And then quickly become a horizontal line at 0. 5 irrelevant with the x-axis. Even if the amount of money on the x-axis increasing in thousands, millions, or billions rate doubled, the relationship between money and happiness curve ignore it. The line will never exceed 0. 25. And the curve maybe fall to 0. 2, 0. 1 or lower level. In mathematics, this phenomenon is called â€Å"diminishing marginal effect. † Reasons for money and happiness curve diminished Through observation and study of happine ss, we can find that any happiness in the world has a premise which is desire. If people have no desire, people would not have happiness. So eager is only source of happiness. Desire is something people look forward, but do not get yet. So happiness is the pleasure when people are satisfied or say gets the thing which they look forwards. Furthermore, we can draw a conclusion, happiness (that is the source) is unrenewable. After we got a happiness, we can repeat to enjoy it, the desire will diminished, until disappear. This means people only have N times to enjoy the same type of happiness. For example, when people have learned how to ride bicycle, he will use it as much as possible, the happiness he get will increase. But when the time he ride bicycle reach to N, the happiness he get before will fall to zero. Because of happiness is non-renewable resources, so in the world of money and material, everyone has the limited resources of desire, and everyone has limited happiness to enjoy. For example, after we learned how to ride bicycle, and enjoy the happiness of ride bicycle, we will never enjoy it again. Along with our possession increase, our happiness will increase too. But the resources of happiness will diminish. It means the happiness we can enjoy will decrease. That is reasons for money and happiness curve diminished Conclusion They say money can't buy happiness, but it can facilitate it. —Malcolm Forbes Happiness is the desire for repetition. –Milan Kundera At the lower end of the income scale the better-off are happier; there is no effect from the middle of the scale onwards. And there has been no historical effect of increased national prosperity on happiness. There is evidence that people are happier of they think they are doing better than other people, or than they did themselves previously. Other sources of happiness are much more important, such as leisure, job satisfaction, social relations and personality. Money has very little effect on these, money people want to be rich or richer, and many take part in lotteries, no doubt in the belief that winning will make them happier. References

Human Factor In The Aircraft Cabin Essay

The term â€Å"Human factor† has grown increasingly popular as the commercial aviation industry has realized that human error, rather than mechanical failure, underlies most accidents and incidents. Human factor involves gathering information and putting it into practice to produce safety, comfort and effective human use. This is then translated into design, training policies and procedures to help humans perform better. The issues on safety should be addressed by ensuring proper and effective communication strategies. Also the ability of the flight crew to maintain situation awareness which involves being aware of what is happening around and understand how information is to be put into action. Pilots should be well trained to handle and monitor flight automation and instruments to prevent confusion and errors during take-off and landing. Disciplinary measures should also be emphasized to avoid situations like drinking or neglecting duties. It is important to go over safety and emergency checklists to ensure emergency equipments and other features specific to the aircraft type are in order and report to the pilot after the preflight check. Before takeoff, unserviceable or missing items must be reported and rectified. The cabin must be monitored for unusual smell or situations and maintain precaution like keeping door locked while fueling. The crew should assist with the loading of baggage, check for size and dangerous goods. They then must do a safety demonstration and monitor passengers as they walk them through the safety procedures, and also secure the cabin by ensuring tray tables are stowed, seats are in upright position and seatbelts are fastened before takeoff. The key role of the flight attendant should be safety provision and provide a care giving and customer service to passengers. Presentation and personal appearance is important to inspire passenger confidence. The crew flight attendants are expected to be dressed well and be friendly. Human factor specialists should ensure the sidewalls are analyzed and improved for increased passenger comfort as well as modification of the in-flight entertainment system. The In-flight Service Manager (ISM) and Customer Service Manager (CSM) should report when the cabin is secure for takeoff and landing. This ensures proper management and safe effective operation during both normal and emergency conditions.

Issues Associated With the Pledge of Allegiance Argumentative Essay

Introduction Pledge of allegiance is the oath of submission and loyalty to American flag and country. It was drafted long ago by the then socialist minister. Despite being modified several times, this pledge still requires some considerable revision due to certain reasons that affects its effectiveness or significance. Body One point of contention is how God is reflected in the pledge of allegiance. Many religious leaders have raised several concerns regarding the representation or the use of the term God in the pledge. They aired a number of reasons backing up their position, one of them being the grammatical sentences upon which the word â€Å"God† is used. This is because it led to some element of vagueness or uncertainty. On the other hand, some unreligious citizens also complain that they are forced to take Godly oaths yet they do not profess to any religious group. Apart from the religious concerns, there exist several issues regarding the understanding of this allegiance especially to persons taking them. It is noted that this oath is also taken by very young children who may not have the capacity to comprehend the oath. This is a massive concern, since children are forced to take the oath yet they cannot fully and adequately understand the content of the oath. Moreover, the under-aged children lack the legal and the mental capacity to comprehend the oath or consent on any serious matters. This poses a massive setback to the oath since it is unethical to allow or force someone to take consent on something that he or she barely understands. Conclusion Pledge of allegiance is extremely significance to the state and the public in general. This is due to the numerous advantages that accompany it. However, it also consist several setbacks that affects the significance and effectiveness of the oath. Therefore, it is necessary to modify the pledge so as to improve its application and effectiveness to the country and citizens of US.