Guest Editor's Introduction to the Special Section on Social Network Security

Abstract

The nine papers included in this special section focus on cyber security methods to protect social network services. The emerging paradigm of social network provides an enormous number of novel approaches to implementing advanced networking communications and data analysis schemes efficiently using existing datasets, networks, and infrastructure. Social networks have had a great impact on people’s daily life and global businesses, as has been addressed by recent research. However, the security issue is also a critical concern when adopting social network technologies in practice. Considering the uniqueness of social networks, the mechanism is now facing a variety of security challenges from multiple dimensions, such as mobile apps, wireless communication, cloud systems, big data, and security operations. Compared with traditional security issues, the applications of social networks are operated in a dynamic circumstance involving different internal and external inputs and factors, which requires new security mechanisms in distinct operational environments. The complexity of the technical implementations may result in unexpected consequences when adopting social network technologies. It is therefore important for current researchers and practitioners to address the security issues and seek out efficient ways to handle different hazards. For the purpose of preventing social network-based solutions from the threats of social networks, a variety of cyber security approaches or mechanism have been proposed.