Online Social

Networks Security

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 Online Social Networks
Security
Principles, Algorithm,
Applications, and Perspectives
Brij B. Gupta & Somya Ranjan Sahoo

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 First edition published 2021

by CRC Press
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ISBN: 9780367619794 (hbk)

ISBN: 9781003107378 (ebk)

Typeset in Times
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.

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 Dedicated to my parents and family for their constant support during
the course of this book

—B. B. Gupta

Dedicated to my parents, family, and my mentor for their splendid

guidance and motivation throughout the journey to the completion of
this book.

—Somya Ranjan Sahoo

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 Contents

Preface xi
Acknowledgements xiii
About the Authors xv

1 Overview of OSNs and Their Impacts on Users 1

1.1 Online Social Network Vulnerabilities 1
1.1.1 Fundamentals of Online Social Networks 2
1.2 Functional Parameters of Online Social Network 3
1.3 Interaction Among Service Providers and Its Users 4
1.4 Background and Motivation 4
1.5 Statistical Analysis Based on Usage and Others 6
1.6 Various Categories of Online Social Networks 9
1.7 Rapid Growth of Social Network Environment 11
1.8 Usage of Online Social Networks Based on Requirement 11
1.9 Online Social Network Issues and Impact 13
1.10 Difficulties in Detection and Mitigation of Various
Attacks Against OSNs 14
1.11 Chapter Summary 16
References 16
2 Security Challenges in Social Networking: Taxonomy,
Statistics, and Opportunities 19
2.1 The Dark Side of Online Social Networks and Media 19
2.2 Mistakes and Wrong Responses by the People 20
2.3 Once It's Out: It's Out 20
2.4 Various Opportunities in OSNs 20
2.5 Taxonomy of OSN-Based Attacks 21
2.5.1 Advanced Persistent Threats 21
2.5.2 Classical Threats 24
2.5.3 Social Threats 26
2.6 Taxonomy of Various Solutions Against OSN Attacks 28
2.6.1 In-Built Security Solution 28
2.6.2 Third-Party Software Solutions 28
2.6.3 Other Security Solutions Against OSN Attacks 31
2.7 Chapter Summary 38
References 38
vii

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 viii Contents

3 Fundamentals of Online Social Networks (OSNs)

and Opportunities 45
3.1 Opportunities in Social Media 45
3.2 Branding 46
3.3 Building of Social Authority in Social Platform 47
3.4 Customers’ Engagement 48
3.5 Sending the Word Out 48
3.6 What to Say? and What Not to? 49
3.7 Cobras (Consumer Brand-Related Activity) 50
3.8 Hashtag 51
3.9 Mistake in Replying to Users of Social Network 51
3.10 Collective Intelligence 52
3.11 Conclusion 54
References 54

4 Machine-Learning and Deep-Learning-Based Security

Solutions for Detecting Various Attacks on OSNs 57
4.1 Introduction 57
4.2 Motivation Towards Working 59
4.3 Problem Definition 59
4.4 Proposed Approach for Fake-Account Detection 59
4.5 Characteristics Analysis of Twitter Accounts 60
4.6 Selection of Features and Computing Feature Sets 60
4.7 Construction of a Raw Dataset and the Creation of a
Labelled Dataset from Raw Data 63
4.8 Petri Net-Based Analyser 63
4.9 Simulation of Petri Net in PN2 Environment 64
4.10 Verification Using SPIN Model Checker 65
4.11 Evaluation of Result and Performance Analysis 66
4.11.1 Execution Method and Result 66
4.12 Chapter Summary 67
References 68

5 Various Threats and Threat-Handling Tools 71

5.1 Introduction 71
5.2 Why Attackers Love Social Media Platforms 72
5.3 Categories of Social Media Attacks Based on
Account Types 76
5.3.1 Categories of Online Social Media Attacks 76
5.4 Cyber Security Tools for Protecting User Account
and Information 78
5.5 Chapter Summary 80
References 81

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 Contents ix

6 Preventive Measures and General Practices 83

6.1 Introduction 83
6.2 Practice Tips to Protect Your System, Account,
and Information 84
6.3 Open Issues and Challenges in Existing Security
Solutions 85
6.4 Principles to Protect the User Account
on a Social Platform 87
6.5 Chapter Summary 91
References 92

7 Data Theft in Indonesia: A Case Study on Facebook 95

7.1 Introduction 95
7.2 Facebook Data Breaker in Indonesia 97
7.2.1 Expert Opinion Regarding the Data Leak Case 97
7.2.2 NGO Comments on the Privacy Issues 98
7.2.3 Government Undertook Measures 99
7.3 Violating of Rights to Privacy (Singapore Case
Related to Facebook) 99
7.4 Data Protection Based on International and
National Law 100
7.4.1 International Law Instrument—Based Evolution
of Protection of Privacy Rights 100
7.5 Conclusion 101
References 102

Index 103

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 Preface

In recent years, people have started using virtual meeting environments in

everyday lives with the help of global online social networks (OSNs) to facili-
tate communication. These networks help users to find new friends and build
links all over the world. Moreover, sharing of information and thoughts is an
important feature of OSNs. Users can share photos, recent activities, videos,
interests, applications, and much more with the help of the OSN. The rate
of using OSN has increased rapidly in the recent years. OSNs like Google+;
Facebook; Twitter; LinkedIn; Sina Weibo; VKontakte; and Mixi, a Japanese
social network, have become the preferred way to communicate for billions
of daily active users. Users spend a lot of time to update their content, com-
municate with early users, and browse other accounts to find information,
which is the main purpose of social networking websites. OSN can elimi-
nate the geographical and economical barriers between the users for com-
munication and information sharing. Due to this, it has become a fascinating
test bed for numerous cyberattacks comprising Cross-Site Scripting, SQL
injection, DDoS, phishing, spamming, fake profile, spammer, etc. This book
elaborates on the various attacks with their classification, countermeasures,
and consequences. It also highlights some key contributions related to current
defensive approaches to various types of attacks on OSNs. Moreover, it repre-
sents machine learning and deep-learning-based approaches to mitigate vari-
ous types of attacks on OSNs. Finally, this book highlights some case studies
related to cyberattacks in Facebook. Specifically, the chapters contained in this
book are summarized as follows:

Chapter 1: Overview of OSNs and Their Impact on Users. This chapter primar-
ily focuses on the various types of security issues and vulnerabilities exploited
by data snoopers to launch various types of attacks against social network users.
Chapter 2: Security Challenges in Online Social Networking:
Taxonomies, Statistics and Opportunities. This chapter provides a classifica-
tion of various security attacks specific to the social network platforms. It also
highlights statistics depicting the usage of social media among Internet users,
percentage of attacks in various scenarios, and so on.
Chapter 3: Fundamentals of Online Social Networks (OSNs) and
Opportunities. This chapter provides deep insight into attacks on OSNs, their

xi

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 xii Preface

classification, scenarios of OSN attacks, and various consequences of OSN

attacks. Furthermore, it describes existing defensive methodologies against
OSN attack with their strengths and weaknesses. It also provides a compara-
tive study of all these techniques.
Chapter 4: Machine Learning and Deep-learning-based Security Solutions
for Detecting Various Attacks on OSNs. This chapter discusses various chal-
lenges in the existing state-of-the-art techniques. Later on, it also elaborates on
an efficient and robust mechanism to detect various threats in OSN platforms.
The chapter also discusses about strengths and limitations on OSNs.
Chapter 5: Various Threats and Threat-Handling Tools. This chapter
discusses types of OSN threats that can have severe impact on social actors.
Moreover, it also describes different types of tools that aid in detecting and
mitigating various threats.
Chapter 6: Preventive Measures and General Practices. This chapter dis-
cusses the general methods and practices that can be applied in the develop-
ment level of browser or web applications, or both, to safeguard against various
attacks in OSN. It also illuminates the path for future research directions by
highlighting the existing issues in currently available solutions.
Chapter 7: Data Theft in Indonesia: A Case Study on Facebook. This
chapter describes one of the case studies on Facebook related to data theft in
Indonesia. It highlights different scenarios of cyberattacks and the preventive
measures that can be taken through various legal actions by the government.

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