Social Networking and Personal Data Security: A Study of Attitudes and Public Awareness in Ireland

This paper reports the findings of a study of attitudes towards data security issues and awareness of the potential risks of social networking sites, most notably the possibility of identity fraud. The population for this study is people in the 18-24 age group living in Ireland, for which the students of one of the country's main universities were used as a proxy sample. The main findings is that many people have a very casual attitude towards data backup and password protection, a considerable number are not adequately aware of the threats posed by viruses transmitted via portable devices and other such means, and a lot of young people are openly publishing personal information of a sensitive nature that could potentially be maliciously exploited.