When viral marketing becomes a cyber risk: Governance and control challenges in digital marketing campaigns

With the rise of social media platforms, artificial intelligence (AI), and data communication technologies, viral marketing has become a vital and strategic method for communication in an organization. Viral marketing can increase consumer engagement, brand visibility, and spreading the word, but it can also lead to significant cybersecurity and governance issues. Digital marketing campaigns today are run in intricate digital ecosystems that are as follows: algorithmic, data rich, platform dependent, and communication distributed. As a result, organizations are becoming more vulnerable to cyber risks, including phishing and social engineering attacks, bot manipulation, deepfakes, privacy risks and reputational risks. This research work explores the concept of viral marketing from a cyber security governance point of view and integrates literature from the fields of digital marketing, information systems governance, cyber security and risk management. There are key cyber risks of viral marketing found in the study, and a framework is recommended for the governance with four key controls – governance and accountability, operational security, assurance and monitoring, and organizational resilience controls. The paper proposes treating viral marketing as an information governance activity that should be under integrated cybersecurity governance and enterprise risk management.