Content and interaction-based mapping of Reddit posts related to information security

Konstantinos Charmanas (), Nikolaos Mittas and Lefteris Angelis
Additional contact information
Konstantinos Charmanas: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Nikolaos Mittas: Democritus University of Thrace
Lefteris Angelis: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Journal of Computational Social Science, 2024, vol. 7, issue 2, No 4, 1187-1222

Abstract: Abstract Ensuring the privacy and safety of platform users has become a complex objective due to the emerging threats that surround any type of network, software, and hardware. Scams, malwares, hackers, and security vulnerabilities form the epicenter of cyber threats causing severe damage to the affected systems and sensitive data of users. Thus, users turn to online social networks to report cyber threats, discuss topics of their interest, and obtain knowledge concerning the various perspectives of information security. In this study, we aim to address the concepts of social interactions surrounding information security-related content by retrieving and analyzing Reddit posts from 45 relevant subreddits. In this regard, a word clustering approach is employed, based on the Affinity Propagation algorithm, that leads to the extraction and interpretation of 54 concepts. These concepts are relevant to information security and some more generic areas of interest including social media, software vendors, and labors. Furthermore, to provide a more comprehensive overview of users’ activity in the different Reddit communities/subreddits, a knowledge map associating subreddits and concepts based on their conceptual similarities is also established. The analysis shows that the descriptions of the examined subreddits are strongly related to their underlying concepts. At the same time, the outcomes also assess the conceptual associations between the different subreddits, offering knowledge related to similar and distant communities. Ultimately, two post metrics are utilized to explore how the concepts may impact user interactions. This allows us to differentiate between concepts associated with posts typically endorsed by communities, resulting in increased information exchange (via comments), or contributing as news/announcements. Overall, the findings of this study can be used as a knowledge basis in determining user interests, opinions, perspectives, and responsiveness, when it comes to cyber threats, attacks, and malicious activities. Also, the respective outcomes can contribute as a guide for identifying similar communities/subreddits and themes. Regarding the methodological contributions of this study, the proposed framework can be adapted to similar datasets and research goals as it does not depend on the special characteristics of the imported data, offering, in turn, a practical approach for future research.

Keywords: Information security; Social networks; Reddit; Hierarchical clustering; Word clustering; Community mapping; Behavioral analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s42001-024-00269-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jcsosc:v:7:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s42001-024-00269-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... iences/journal/42001

DOI: 10.1007/s42001-024-00269-4

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Computational Social Science is currently edited by Takashi Kamihigashi

More articles in Journal of Computational Social Science from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().