“DATA” as per the traditional definition says facts and statistics collected together for analysis. But the crucial role that it plays in our day to day lives is quite fascinating and sometimes unbelievable. It is not just the organizations that insist on data security, rather every user of the social media platforms ought for data security. So let us discuss how security breaches on social media can change a life.
Many social media platforms had a history of a data breach in recent years. Let me give you some examples.
LinkedIn is considered to be one of the official social media platform used for a professional network. An official announcement by LinkedIn stated that around 6.5 million unassociated passwords were purloined by third parties. Later those passwords were posted on a Russian hacker forum.
Instagram is said to be one of the time-honoured social applications in the present day. But some bugs on Instagram led to a breach of nearly 6 million celebs in the year 2017.
In India alone, various conglomerate firms unveiled that spyware named PEGASUS broke into mobiles of many journalists and lawyers without any report of authorization. The spyware was designed in such a way that it was able to encompass the user’s mobile and track many of their activities including messages and browsing history.
Not just these, social platforms such as Adobe, eBay, Dubsmash, etc. also reported security breaches earlier. So let’s come to the main issue that “how it impacts and what are the consequences”.
1) RISK
Undoubtedly there is an immense risk at the organization’s end as well as the user’s end. Though the data were stolen is retrieved back in many ways but there is still a minute chance for disclosure of the data that was breached. And there will be a high load of risk regarding sensitive content of the information.
2) FINANCIAL LOSS
A security breach is more likely to affect the small organizations rather than the big old popular ones. The financial loss sometimes goes straight into millions to deal with large organizations. As announced by the RBI, money worth Rs. 67,432 crore was detected as a loss for banking and cyber frauds alone in India. And it is well predictable that 60% of security breaches target upcoming or small reputed organizations.
3) DAMAGE TO REPUTATION
No customer wants to get involved in a social media app that had a problem regarding the security breach earlier. It obviously creates alertness in the user’s mind that it isn’t safe for usage. There is no place for reputation where there is no value for privacy for information that users wanted it to be private in all means.
4) VANDALISM
Once it is out that a particular org has suffered from a security breach it gives the media the chance to harm the organization both online and offline. Inappropriate critics may lead to brook the customers to fuss around which creates even more damage.
5) LEGAL ISSUES
There would be many legal obligations that should be faced by the company owner for taking the risk of a security breach. Even the weakest link could bring major problems into this. Organizations need to take crystal clear plans prior to minimize the risk of higher penalties.
Therefore the legal problems that are to be faced by an organization are always unequivocal.
“Be careful! One single vulnerability is all an attacker needs.”
