Cyber Threat!: How to Manage the Growing Risk of Cyber Attacks

Chapter 7Social Media and Digital Protest

No man is an island,

Entire of itself,

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

—John Donne

Just as no man is an island, neither is information technology an island, at least not anymore. Today information technology is a tool for the many, and its success is dependent on increasingly wide acceptance and fully engaged use. Information technology today isn't just a computer. It is computer-driven, yes. But it is much more than the ability to calculate and communicate. It is a revolutionary vehicle that is rapidly changing not only the way society communicates but the way it relates. Social media is shaping culture, religion, politics, economics, diplomacy, terrorism, and war. The flash-fire escalation of social media is a phenomenon of the Internet age. It is the ultimate congruence of hardware, software, services, and communications, fueled by low-cost, low-profile, multiuse physical devices that are literally in the hands of the young, the middle-aged, and the elderly alike. These devices pervade the home, the office, even the industrial workplace, as well as schools and universities.

Social media enables mass messaging and unprecedented influence capabilities, often at the drop of a tweet. Social media today is the ultimate example that no man is an island. Social media has created a powerful demonstration that the whole is in fact greater than the sum of its many, many parts. It has given voice to causes honorable ...