MANIPULATION ECOSYSTEM OF SOCIAL MESSAGING PLATFORMS
MANIPULATION ECOSYSTEM OF SOCIAL MESSAGING PLATFORMS

Author(s): Marina Paramonova, Rueban Manokara
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Economy, Security and defense, ICT Information and Communications Technologies
Published by: NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence
Keywords: Security risks of social messaging; Impersonation; Cyber attacks; global and open marketplace; Mass messaging services;
Summary/Abstract: Social messaging platforms started as analternative to the Short Messaging Service (SMS), pitching themselves as faster and cheaper, with additional features such as the ability to send documents and media securely. These features granted users a level of encryption that meant no third party, including the messaging services themselves, was able to read the messages sent. Today, social messaging platforms account for a combined 4.1 billion users and social messaging has become the most frequent activity a person carries out online. Similarly to major social media platforms that are being artificially inflated and manipulated for financial and political gain, social messaging platforms are equally vulnerable to the threat of exploitation.

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