Business Research Methods and Problem of Cyber Crimes - Sample

Question: Find A Current Business Problem, Preferably In Your Discipline Area, That Requires Research To Understand And Solve? Answer: Introduction The problem of cyber crimes such as identity theft and fraud present a critical concern in the business world that ought to be addressed before matters get out of hand, especially when looking at social networking sites. Armano (2009) referred to a survey done by Proofpoint, and identified that about 8% of employees had been laid off by their companies because of the usage of social media. The reason that came out quite strongly, in support for the terminations was because of sharing of sensitive company information with social networks (Armano, 2009). The statistics identified that information sharing in social networks is a critical hurdle in the business world, particularly when looking at the potential risks of the emergence of cyber crimes. As a matter of fact, identity thefts and fraud affect millions of people as established by Lewis (2017). One reason that has been erected in the support for the promotion of online identity theft and fraud constitute the lack of consumer know ledge, regarding the protection of ones identity online (Lewis, 2017). Other reasons include the growing trust and comfort in the providers of the social platforms, the need for generation of income, by the social media platforms, and the absence of standards, which function to regulate the usage and the level of information sharing in social networks (Lewis, 2017). Given the above background, it is essential to look at what literature says regarding the problem of identity theft and fraud that is culminated by the presence of social networking sites. The paper will then seek to identify a set of hypothesis that will attempt to address the problem at hand. An evaluation of a range of research methods that can be employed will be done, including a justification for the selected methods that will be used in the study. Finally, a research plan will be designed, which will detail the steps that will be taken in the research project process. Literature Review A study done by Molok, Ahmad, and Chang (2011) established that online social networking was a challenging source of information leakage. This source has in fact been considered to be an underlying factor behind employees leaking information online (Molok, Ahmad, Chang, 2011). The leaked information then becomes a critical vector for attacks in the form of cyber crimes that are carried out using the spear-phishing technique (Molok, Ahmad, Chang, 2011). The researchers identified that the effect of leaking sensitive information by employees can not only result in the tarnishing of the reputation of a company, but can also attract the attacks of cyber criminals (Molok, Ahmad, Chang, 2011). The conceptual study revealed that further studies that are aimed at understanding the behaviour-changing approach should be adopted, given that information leakage by employees was as a result of their actions. The researcher identified that this could be facilitated by the designing and implemen ting security education, training and awareness SETA (Molok, Ahmad, Chang, 2011). A study done by Kumar et al. (2013) sought to identify security protocols that could be established in the bid to launch a defence mechanism against hackers. In the study, the researchers determined that with the presence of rampant sharing that has been precipitated by the presence of social media networks, hackers have emerged that strive to steal personal data, thanks to the presence of social networking sites (Kumar et al., 2013). The researchers identified that privacy, security issues, and attacks emerged in social networking sites, thanks to the presence of hackers. The findings revealed that having knowledge of hacking strategies is essential to the identification of a defence strategy in the fight against cyber-war (Kumar et al., 2013). The researchers further proposed a framework that would play a critical role in the improvement of profile customization (Kumar et al., 2013). The study done by Bilge et al. (2009) sought to reveal the extent of easiness that a possible attacker would initiate crawling cyber theft attacks that are an automated, against five of the well-known social networking sites, in the bid to acquire more access to a large pool of personal user data (Bilge et al., 2009). The researchers identified that the attackers often had the hope that their targets trusted them enough to allow them access to their personal information that is available in social media sites (Bilge et al., 2009). The researchers conducted a primary research using the qualitative approach. The experimental findings revealed that a common user was prone to accepting requests for friendship from an forged identity that, is in fact, a contact that is confirmed in the friend list (Bilge et al., 2009). The findings further established that inaugurating an automated cross profile cloning attack was effective because such profiles existed only once on the targeted social ne tworking sites (Bilge et al., 2009). In such a case, a friend request sent from such a profile would tend to appear as being legitimate (Bilge et al., 2009). The study identified proposals for the promotion of improvement to the levels of security in social networking sites. The need for beefing up security in social networking sites as presented by Bilge et al. (2009) matches views in the research done by Kumar et al. (2013). In yet another study, the researchers identified online theft was a growing social networking crime (Ameur Sch?nfeld, 2011). Ameur and Sch?nfeld (2011) established that the reason for the high rates of social networking crimes was attributed to the amount of data that is shared by individuals in online platforms (Ameur Sch?nfeld, 2011). A secondary study was done, which identified critical qualitative information in the topic of identity theft (Ameur Sch?nfeld, 2011). The paper identified the techniques that are used by hackers to steal a user identity and the legal issues that emerge therein (Ameur Sch?nfeld, 2011). The study further determined some prevention and protection mechanisms that can be used by vulnerable social networking sites users (Ameur Sch?nfeld, 2011). The study preaches a similar message of boosting protection against cybercrimes, which occur in the form of identity thefts and fraud. The study by Wang, Yuan and Archer (2006) appreciated the negative role that identity theft play among individuals and countries, and so they sought to identity a contextual framework that would function to combat the vice. Similar to the views by Ameur and Sch?nfeld (2011), Wang, Yuan and Archer (2006) identified that the rising cases of identity theft is facilitated by the wide usage of identity information, which has been promoted by the explosion of internet applications. The findings in the article revealed that combating identity theft calls for the collaboration between stakeholders, while paying attention to education, technology development, security management, and the arm of the law (Wang, Yuan Archer, 2006). The study identified that future research would consider looking into the problems that manifest in the quest for addressing identity theft in social networking sites (Wang, Yuan Archer, 2006). The researchers identified that no single solution can be employed to co mbat the problem of identity theft, rather, attention will have to be placed on the collaboration of the various stakeholders that are party to the occurrence of a cyber crime (Wang, Yuan Archer, 2006). From the literature review, it is apparent that the cybercrimes such as identity theft and fraud, commonly referred to as cybercrimes present a major hurdle in social networking sites. All the studies promote the need for combating the occurrence of these cybercrimes using various techniques, with some proposing the adoption of various frameworks as a means of promoting cyber safety when using online social networks. The section below will improve on the available literature in the quest of providing propositions to address the problem at hand. Hypothesis for Addressing the Problem In the bid to provide a solution to the problem of cyber crimes such as identity theft and fraud in social networking sites, the following hypothesis will be employed. H1: Cybercrimes like identity thefts and fraud are majorly a product of rampant information sharing in social networking sites. H2: A majority of cybercrimes can be combated by the use of collaborations of stakeholders that are party to the usage of social networking sites. H3: Cybercrimes in social networking sites can be reduced by offering the users with education, training and awareness. Research Methodology Conducting sound research is essential for gaining understanding into the dynamics and effects that emanate from a social problem (University of Minnesota Libraries, n.d). On that note, it is essential to note that various research methodologies are at the disposal for use by researchers that are seeking to address the problem of cyber crimes in social networking sites. It is also critical to note the research methodologies are classified under the broader quantitative and qualitative research methods. Qualitative research employs the usage of non-statistical methods, while quantitative research uses statistical data (Andale, 2016). Some of the research methods that can be employed take note of the use of surveys, experiments, existing data/ archival research and observations (University of Minnesota Libraries, n.d). Other research methods include the use content analysis, computer simulations, case studies, meta-analysis, naturalistic observation, and interviews (Andale, 2016). In the bid to understand the concept of cybercrimes in social networking sites, the study will take advantage of the effect that emanates from combining the usage of three research methods namely; experiments, interviews and surveys, under the broader mixed methodology approach. Given the presented hypothesis, it is apparent that human participation is essential to the study, and so the use of a mixed method approach is imperative to the study. With reference to the advantages of using mixed methods as determined by Hughes (2016), the research will justify the combination of experiments, surveys and interviews. The research will allow the conduction of an in depth study that will be essential to the provision of critical interpretation of data and phenomenon of cybercrimes in social networking sites. The dynamics of combining qualitative and quantitative research will be vital to masking the loopholes of either kind of research. It is highly likely that the combination of the usage of experiments, surveys and interviews will be essential to the provision of rigorous and wide pools of quantitative data and qualitative information, which will provide a blueprint that can be built upon by researchers, and the development of recommendations that can be acted on by stakeholders of the social networking sites, in the quest to address cybercrimes, a step at a time. Action Plan The action plan for the research project will be as presented in the sections identified below. Literature Review: About thirty academic research articles, published between 2007 and 2017 will be sampled but only ten will be selected for writing the section. Methodology: The methodology section will detail more information on the selected research method, design and data collection instruments that will be used in the study. Details on the sampling technique and the procedures that will be adopted will also be recorded here. Data Collection: This section will detail the procedures for data collection using the selected instruments i.e. experiments, surveys and interviews. Results Analysis: This section will contain data representation in tables, graphs, pictures, and conclusions drawn from relationships. Discussion: This section will attempt to piece together the information obtained from the data collection and the relationships that exists, while paying attention to the hypothesis. Recommendations and Conclusions: This section will contain the proposals that are drawn from the research findings, in what is dubbed as evidence-based research. The conclusion will then be drawn at this point, which will attempt to connect the pieces of the puzzle in the bid to understand cybercrimes in social networking sites. References Ameur, E., Sch?nfeld, D. (2011, July). The ultimate invasion of privacy: Identity theft. In Privacy, Security and Trust (PST), 2011 Ninth Annual International Conference on (pp. 24-31). IEEE. Andale. (2016). Research Methods: Qualitative Research and Quantitative Research. Retrieved May 19, 2017, from https://www.statisticshowto.com/research-methods-qualitative-research-and-quantitative-research/ Armano, D. (2009). Five Challenges Social Media Will Bring to Business. Blog da Harvard Business Review, 14. Bilge, L., Strufe, T., Balzarotti, D., Kirda, E. (2009, April). All your contacts are belong to us: automated identity theft attacks on social networks. In Proceedings of the 18th international conference on World wide web (pp. 551-560). ACM. Hughes, A. S. (2016). Mixed Methods Research. Retrieved May 19, 2017, from https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/mixed-methods-research#.WSBoL9wlFdg Kumar, A., Gupta, S. K., Rai, A. K., Sinha, S. (2013). Social networking sites and their security issues. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 3(4), 1-5. Lewis, K. (2017). How Social Media Networks Facilitate Identity Theft and Fraud. Retrieved May 19, 2017, from https://www.eonetwork.org/octane-magazine/special-features/social-media-networks-facilitate-identity-theft-fraud Molok, N. N. A., Ahmad, A., Chang, S. (2011). Information leakage through online social networking: Opening the doorway for advanced persistence threats. Journal of the Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers, 19(2), 38. University of Minnesota Libraries. (n.d). Doing Research on Social Problems. Retrieved May 19, 2017, from https://open.lib.umn.edu/socialproblems/chapter/1-4-doing-research-on-social-problems/ Wang, W., Yuan, Y., Archer, N. (2006). A contextual framework for combating identity theft. IEEE Security Privacy, 4(2), 30-38.