How To Stay Safe On Social Media The Dos and Don’ts
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Social media has become part and parcel of our lives over the years. The average Internet user has at least three accounts across various social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Businesses have also not been left behind and are leveraging social media to broaden their reach and increase revenue.
However, there are numerous risks associated with using social media. If you are not vigilant, you might expose yourself and your loved ones to malicious individuals.
Here are a few practical ways to stay safe on social media.
Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash
Don’t accept every friend request
Not everyone on social media wants to be your friend. Anyone can easily create a pseudo account with a fake photo and send you a friend request. Even though you had set your profile to private, the unknown individual can now see what you post on your page, including photos and location tags. They could take your personal information and use it against you. Therefore, we urge you to decline friend requests from people you don’t know.
Use robust passwords
A study by Cybernews reveals that 75% of most passwords are easy to crack. Hackers could implement a strategy known as a dictionary attack to guess possible passwords for your social media platforms and gain unauthorized access.
Therefore, we cannot emphasize the importance of setting strong passwords with a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols enough. It would also help if your passwords contained at least 12 characters so a hacker won’t easily guess correctly.
Another pro tip would be to avoid using your birthday or any other personal information that would make your password easy to guess.
Create a different password for each platform
We understand you might be tempted to use the same password for convenience across all your profiles and accounts. However, you will also make a hacker’s work easier. Once they can correctly guess one password, they might think to use it and access the rest of your accounts. Therefore, we strongly urge you to use different passwords to keep your accounts safe.
It might seem like a lot of work, but we guarantee it will be worth it in the end. If you find yourself prone to forgetting, you could use a password manager to help you remember.
Hire a hacker
In the unfortunate scenario, a hacker infiltrates your account and locks you out. You might be at a loss for what to do next. This malicious individual could text your friends pretending to be you or post questionable content. In this scenario hiring a hacker would be a smart move. Your hacker can bypass any security measures the previous one put up and restore your account.
Avoid posting private information
The whole point of social media is to connect with other people and share your experiences. However, sharing sensitive information like your home address, credit card number, and telephone number could make you prone to risks.
A cybercriminal could steal your identity or use your card to make purchases online without your consent. Therefore, we suggest you watch what you post and keep personal information to yourself.
Implement two-factor authentication
Perhaps you are in charge of a high-profile social media account or a scheduling tool that would wreak havoc if it got into the wrong hands. These accounts contain high-value data that you must protect at all costs.
You could take the security up a notch by implementing two-factor authentication. Basically, after you enter the correct password, you will receive a multi-digit verification code via email or SMS.
Two-factor authentication adds a second layer of protection to your social media account by confirming someone hasn’t successfully impersonated you.
Don’t post about your travel plans
Imagine a scenario where you have been saving up for a trip, and D-day is finally here. You can’t wait to tell everyone on your timeline how excited you are to board the plane to your dream destination.
However, this might not be such a good idea. A stalker could be on the lookout and follow you on vacation, possibly intending to cause you harm. If you must post about your vacation, it would be best to post the photos after you return home.
Wrap Up
In addition to implementing the tips above, you could leverage the highest privacy settings, like making your posts available only to your friends. You could also hide your friends list to prevent a stalker from joining the dots and finding you online. We also urge you to keep everything updated to fix any vulnerabilities in the software.
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