Security and Privacy in Online Social Networks: A Survey

Abstract

The Online Social Networks (OSN) open a new vista serving millions of users and have reshaped the way people interacts. Unfortunately these networks are an emerging platform for cybercrimes such as sending malicious URLs, spams, etc. which causes a huge financial loss and social damage. In this paper, it is reviewed that OSN is a new cybercrime platform for threating agents because of the security pit falls in the existing centralised architecture and their driven functionalities. This article surveys the detailed analysis of the current state of the Online Social Networks in perspective of security and privacy issues. Additionally in this paper we presents various types of attacks that can be mounted via OSN and the defence measures against each of the attack. This literature also highlights on the types of vulnerabilities and threats in OSN. Significant threat categories and risks associated as well as a scope to circumventing these threats and vulnerabilities are also introduced.