A systematic understanding of the risks and challenges of cybersecurity and its impact on digital business and innovation 

Ability to critically appraise the concepts, standards, regulations, legislation and frameworks

Task

From the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica data breach in early 2018, to the Twitter cybersecurity breach in July 2020, social platforms have been a major target for cybercrime. Social media risks range from simple account settings to sophisticated concepts that involve public relations and brand management. In the age of big data, platforms host and generate an unprecedented amount of data that result in new vulnerabilities and therefore threats. At the same time, cybercrime is making use of the rapid innovation of technological developments, developing sophisticated hacking techniques and smart malware that targets communication platforms and corporate networks to obtain confidential data for financial gain.

The Electronic Journal of Social Media Research has issued a call for articles for a special issue on Cybercrime and Social Media and you have been invited to submit an article titled:

Cybersecurity and Social Media Platforms: Challenges, Significance and Implications.

Your article should address the following key points:

• Nature and impact of cybersecurity threats in the sector
• Key vulnerabilities and risk assessment
• Standards, policy, regulatory and ethical issues
• Economic significance and implications
• Technological advancements, new threats and challenges, innovation
• Conclusions, recommendations, limitations

Assessment Requirements

Your article should be no longer than 2000 words (±10%). The limit excludes diagrams and references. The structure of your article should have the following format:

• Title page (with word count; please do not include name or student id)
• List of contents 

• Abstract (~80 words). This should contain a brief description of the work along with your main findings. 

• Introduction (~500 words). The introduction should contain a brief description of the article, introduce the subject area and set the context. 

• Main body (~1,000 words). This should contain literature review, review of the current state of cybersecurity in social media platforms, covering the key points as outlined above and analysis.

body containing the literature review, which should cover:

• Current state of security in social media platforms
• Nature and impact of cybersecurity threats in the sector
• Key vulnerabilities and risk assessment
• Standards, policy, regulatory and ethical issues
• Economic significance and implications
• Technological advancements and innovation

• Conclusions (~500 words). This should contain the conclusions following your analysis, present your recommendations and highlight the limitations of your research. Including recommendations and limitations 

• References. When writing an article, you will need to support your arguments by referring to published work such as academic journals, government reports, good practitioner sources, books, etc. All work must be fully referenced using the Harvard Referencing. You may want to consult the referencing style guide at Referencing your work.

You will need to demonstrate a basic but clear understanding of the topic, provide a suitable review of the existing literature including appropriate sources (correctly referenced), complete a rudimentary analysis of your findings and present your conclusions and recommendations, demonstrating awareness of the limitations of your work.

Also need to provide a comprehensive literature review, show a proficient understanding of the cybersecurity issues associated with the sector and the current state of things, and relate your conclusions and recommendations to your review. Conference proceedings and online practitioner resources are acceptable sources for your literature review; however, you will need a minimum of 6 journal articles, where you’ll demonstrate an in-depth understanding of cybersecurity in the sector acquired through the study of an extensive range of appropriate research sources (journal articles in particular), be able to critically analyse relevant source material and develop a comprehensive list of recommendations that shows clear relationships between the researched topic, your findings and your conclusions. which would lead you to a particular evidence of insight into your analysis and recommendations, and evidence of primary research and/or innovative application of relevant framework/theories.