October 30, 2020 – New York, United States
Staying Safe on Social Media
Social media platforms offer a variety of ways to keep in touch with friends and family, share photos and information. But, unscrupulous individuals seek to use social media for dishonest pursuits, and if you haven’t practiced proper social media security, they will often succeed. While you may feel comfortable sharing pictures of your family, dinners you’ve cooked, funny pet videos, and memes, you’d be surprised at how much more you are actually sharing without knowing it!
Savvy hackers can discern a great deal of information just from some of the photos you’ve shared and the information you’ve made public. And with that information they can contact you via email or phone under the false guise of a company or individual you know to get even more information out of you to access your financial or company accounts.
How to Practice Good Cybersecurity in Social Media
At BlackCloak, we recommend you follow 7 simple steps to secure yourself in social media. To ensure that you are protected no matter what particular social media site you use, always practice these basic cybersecurity measures:
1. Make Your Accounts Private
Many social media platforms such as Facebook allow you to make your account private—your posts and information can only be seen by those you are friends with. Privacy settings can sometimes be confusing, but take the time to read and fully understand all the social media privacy settings for each platform so you can better protect yourself.
2. Don’t Make Friends With People You Don’t Know While the temptation to amass a large group of friends on social media can be great, it’s also very risky. There are many fake accounts designed specifically to get your private information.
3. Use a Strong Password
It can never be stressed enough that one of the most important social media security actions you can take is to use a strong password. We recommend a password of 12+characters, using a mixture of numbers, letters and special characters. Be sure to use a different password for each social media platform and use a password safe to help you securely store and manage all of your passwords.
4. Use Enhanced Social Media Security Options
Many social media platforms offer the option for enhanced cybersecurity where they ask you a series of questions before you login, or send you a code via text message to your phone. The latter is known as two-step or two-factor authentication, and makes it harder for someone to hack into your account even if they have your password. Enable two-factor on all of your social media accounts that have the option.
5. Don’t Post Private Information
Never post things such as your phone number, financial information, or other confidential information that hackers could use. If you need to tell someone something personal, do it in a private message so that no one else reading your posts will see it.
6. Be Careful Of Public Wi-Fi
Coffee shops, hotels, airports, hotels, and other public places are common areas where people usually connect to the Internet and browse social media. But they are also prime locations for hackers to discover your usernames and passwords to any sites you might log into on the public Wi-Fi. Hackers use sophisticated technology to “hijack” the public Wi-Fi signal (or even set up their own), enabling them to see the usernames and passwords you enter when you login to a site.
7. Use Antivirus Software
Keep up to date with antivirus software so that your phone, computer, laptop, or tablet can better detect viruses, malware and spyware.
For more information, you can visit BlackCloak.io/blog. There you will find more information and articles on how to protect your digital life. BlackCloak provides concierge cybersecurity services for high-profile or high-net worth individuals and executives.