In this age of digital advancements, social media platforms are the top trend. Social media platforms have enabled people to communicate with each other whenever and wherever they want.
Social media has benefited common people and made a remarkable change in the business world in terms of marketing. Social media presence is a must for businesses nowadays to reach a global, bigger user base.
Social media is fueling our daily activities, from uploading pictures and videos to shopping online. But, there is a catch. And that is cybercrime. With so much social media usage, people and companies generate enormous amounts of data that is always under the radar of cyber-attacks.
From phishing to identity thefts to data breaches, many security-related issues come with the use of social media. We cannot stop using social media, but we can be careful while using it. Here are five practices for individuals and corporations to enhance social media security.
Strong Passwords:
This is the first area to improve to ensure social media protection. When creating a password for your social media accounts, you should set strong passwords that are not easy to predict for a hacker.
Also, never reuse your passwords for different accounts. If a hacker guesses your password and all your accounts have the same or even somewhat similar passwords, the hacker will get access to all of your accounts and personal information.
Moreover, if your social media passwords are similar to your business or bank-related account passwords, you can land yourself in big trouble. The perfect solution to this is using a password manager. A password manager generates and secures unique and strong passwords for every site.
While many question, “is a password manager safe or not?” the answer is that it is safe to use. The myth that password managers can access your data has been repeatedly busted. Password managers provide end-to-end encryption and thus do not access or store your data except for the passwords. This is the best solution to protect yourself from data breaches and cyber thefts.
Multi-Factor Authentication:
For even better security, you can apply multi-factor or two-factor authentication to your accounts. Multi-factor authentication simply refers to applying additional security to accounts. It goes a step beyond using the strong password system. So if a hacker finds out your password, they still won’t be able to log in to your account unless they pass the additional security barrier.
With multi-factor authentication, you can add a security code, a personal question, etc., that needs to get answered before accessing your account. You can also set it to send a one-time pin to your email or mobile. This way, to access your account, a perpetrator needs to prove to be you, which they can’t, since the extra security step involves something personal they cannot figure out.
The one-time pins you receive from banks through SMS or email are an example of two-factor authentication. MFA is valuable for business as well as personal accounts. Most common platforms, such as Meta, Twitter, etc., already have this feature. You must enable it in all your accounts.
Post Carefully:
Think before you share anything online as depending on your account’s settings, not only your closest friends and family but everyone and anyone gets to see what you post online. Cybercriminals are always looking for public accounts to tailor their cyber-attacks.
Your posts tell a lot about you, about your interests, where you go to eat, where you work, where you live, etc. Everything is right there for cybercriminals to see. Not only what you post yourself but the posts you are tagged in, groups you are a part of, or interests you follow, etc., anything can lead to giving something to use against you.
Similarly, attackers might be looking for a single employee to attack on social media, through whom they can enter for a corporate-level attack. Every interest of yours is visible from your accounts, which leads phishers to easily trap you by phishing emails, texts, or calls.
Not only that, but if you post with negligence, you might harm others without even knowing. For example, if you upload something about a coworker or anything related to the company where you work, you are indirectly exposing them to cyber criminals.
Secure Corporate Accounts:
Social media is a direct way of communication for a corporation with its customers. And thus, a lot of organizations have several corporate social media accounts. The IT teams of organizations must use the least-privileged administrative model to increase security while accessing social media.
The corporation must also minimize the number of employees that can directly access the corporation’s social media accounts. Of course, some employees have access to the company’s social media accounts to update the posts, offers, and news there, but the company must ensure that those employers do not use the accounts for purposes other than their responsibilities. A social media management platform can help limit the users’ privileges to ensure security.
It is also necessary to control the published posts on a company’s social media to maintain high quality and avoid any inconveniences. The posts on a corporation’s social media are responsible for its reputation.
Be Vigilant:
Apart from technological security steps, you need to take a step yourself and be more vigilant and mindful when using social media. In a race to get more followers and connections, people get careless. Not everyone you have added on your social media is someone you know or is incapable of harming you. It is crucial to add only close people to your account.
Be careful when you open direct messages (DMs); do not click on every link that is being forwarded to you. Not all of your friends are aware of every security step, so unknowingly, they might forward a malicious link to you.
Also, be careful about the information you put on your business-related account. If you are giving your mobile number, address, or any other critical information there, make sure you do not have similar security questions in your account’s MFA process.
Like if you have set up a question in MFA about your mobile number, and you have already given it for your business account, then the hacker can easily find it and enter it.
Conclusion:
The use of social media is on the rise. We use it not only for communication purposes but for business activities, too. On the one hand, social media has made it easy to interact with others, but on the other hand, it has made us more prone to cyber-attacks. It’s important to use social media carefully. To avoid any threats to your social media security, adopt these five practices and enjoy your time on the social media platforms.
