Investigation of security threats of social networks on intelligence organizations and investigation of filtering in Iran

Considering the feeling of need to access information and news and correspondingly expanding Iranians' acceptance of virtual space and social networks, as well as the need of intelligence organizations for this access, attention to its threats and opportunities should also be considered. One of the characteristics of some non-Iranian social networks is the unavailability of the information of its users or administrators. This issue can severely threaten national security. From this point of view, the statesmen and policy makers of the virtual space are determined to minimize the amount of these threats with different solutions and methods. Among the policies adopted in this field is the filtering policy, which seems to have failed to significantly prevent employees from joining non-Iranian social networks and, as a result, maintain a safe space in the internal cyber borders. Therefore, in this research, we decided to investigate the security threats of these networks on intelligence organizations and filtering policies in Iran and investigate the factors of its complete lack of success.

The research method is descriptive-analytical and the data has been collected and analyzed using the library method.

It seems that globalization and the requirements for global identification have caused the tendency of Iranians and intelligence organizations (in line with their mission) to foreign virtual networks, as well as the lack of sufficient infrastructure and written documents in the field of virtual space, as well as the political culture of Iranians, policy makers and Pro-global village and liberal-minded managers have made the filtering policy difficult; Therefore, in this field, it poses various threats to the intelligence community and Iranian society; At the end, suggestions, strategies and solutions are presented.