What are at least 4 safeguards you can put in place to keep your social media account information secure?

Social media is an indispensable tool for ecommerce and brand owners to promote their products and communicate with their audience. However, brands can only reap the benefits of social media for business when they protect their accounts from various attacks. Hackers, scammers, and impersonators are an ever-growing threat on social media. 

In this article, you will learn how to secure your social media for business efficiently and stay ahead of potential attacks. We provide an overview of the most common threats on social media and walk you through concrete actions you can implement. 

What are the threats brands are facing on social media? 

Scammers 

Crypto scams

Popular fraud involves crypto scams where infringers promote cryptocurrency giveaways on various social media platforms. By doing so, a scammer pretends to be a celebrity or trusted entity from the crypto community that hosts a giveaway. 

In order to participate in the giveaway, users are asked to send a certain amount of cryptocurrency to a giveaway address to verify their wallet address. Scammers make users believe that in turn, they receive their giveaway. The catch here is that because crypto transactions can’t be withdrawn, users can’t get their money back after sending money to a scammer’s address. 

Phishing attacks

Another common scam is phishing attacks that lure customers with fake coupons for popular brands. To claim the coupon, users have to hand over personal information like their names, addresses, date of birth or even bank details. This type of scam often takes place on Facebook. 

Ad scams

Scam ads are a growing problem on Facebook and Instagram. Infringers use fake ads to make consumers believe that they are buying from a legitimate brand. They usually lure shoppers with very cheap prices for certain products or services. 

Scammers use images or other identifying information from the real brand to make it look real. When unknowing shoppers fall for the fake ad and make a purchase, they either receive a low-quality knock-off product or no product at all. This often leads to reputational damages for brands as customers leave bad reviews on the original brand. 

Impersonators 

Creating a fake social media account is one of the easiest tasks for infringers. This form of business identity theft involves the use of names, images, logos, or other identifying information of persons and brands for malicious purposes. Fake accounts are used to target customers with aggressive fake advertising campaign attacks, sell counterfeit products or steal sensitive information. 

It is important to know that impersonators don’t limit themselves to fake social media accounts. By copying identifying information through copyright infringement or trademark infringement, they also create look-alike websites, fake apps, phishing emails and other crimes.

Hackers

Hackers are the burglars of the internet. They break into devices mainly with the goal to steal, alter or delete information which can cause huge financial and reputational damages for brand owners. After gaining access to social media accounts, hackers often use the accounts to distribute malware that steals sensitive data like login credentials or other information from users. 

Social media is attractive for hackers because of the various options to distribute malicious codes. These include malvertising, shared images and links, plugins and other digital media. The fact that billions of people around the globe use and share content on social media reinforces the problem. 

Instagram appears to be the social media platform that is especially prone to be hacked on mobile phones. 

What are the ways of protecting your social media accounts? 

Choose individual strong passwords

Passwords are often the biggest security gap and the easiest to fix. A password of 8 lowercase letters makes up 209 billion possible combinations which might sound a lot, but a computer is able to crack this instantly. To be secure, the passwords for your social media accounts should be at least 12 characters long and contain a random combination of capital and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. 

Make sure not to use the same password for different social media accounts. Also, although Facebook allows you to sign in to other social media accounts with your Facebook account, you should avoid signing in to multiple accounts with the same account. Lastly, you should renew your passwords periodically to increase security. 

Use two-factor authentication

Enabling two-factor authentification is one of the most effective ways of shielding your business social media accounts from hackers. It confirms the user’s identity by using a combination of a password and a confirmation code sent to the account owner via an app, email or text message. While this login process is slightly more complicated than just using a password, it adds an extra level of protection to your social media accounts and effectively protects your data. 

Avoid public Wi-Fi connections

Public Wi-Fi networks have a number of security gaps that make them too risky for managing your business social media accounts. Hackers can create fake “guest Wi-Fi” networks for public spaces like cafes. As soon as you connect to such a network, bad actors can access your information and work. But also legitimate public Wi-Fi connections at airports, libraries and other places don’t meet the security standards that are needed to keep your social media accounts for business safe. 

Keep track of who has access to accounts

When it comes to managing your social media accounts for business the saying “too many cooks spoil the broth” holds true. It happens quickly to lose sight over who has access to accounts that are posting content. Limiting the number of people who have access helps reduce the risk of your social media accounts being hacked through emails, mobile phones or computers. 

Implement a social media policy  

Clear guidelines and practices on how to use social media for your business outline the safe use of social media and make it easier for your employees to follow them. A social media policy helps prevent security threats and inappropriate posts from employees. It should include guidelines for copyrights, communication, brand voice and confidentiality. 

Create a separate email address for your social media

The advantage of using an email address exclusively for your social media is that it protects other sensitive data in case your account gets compromised. If you use an employee’s address, a hacker could also get access to other confidential information which would worsen the problem. Make sure to use a strong password that you only use for this email address. 

Monitor your accounts and potential threats

Keep an eye on all your social media accounts including the ones that you signed up for but not using. These are the ones that are especially prone to hackers. You should frequently check the posts on all accounts. A post that seems suspicious or that deviates from your guidelines and content plan could be a sign of a compromised account. 

What’s next

Impersonators that mimic your brand for fraudulent purposes on social media can lead to revenue losses, stolen customer data and reputation damages. That’s why it is important to take protective measures that shield your social media accounts for business from various attacks. 

Red Points is specialized in safeguarding your brand on social media. Our software detects social media infringements across platforms and requests takedowns automatically.
Reach out to us today to protect your brand on social media.

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Today, more than 79% of the U.S. population is active on social networks, but many of those people have no idea how to stay safe on social media. Users openly share data, often use poorly protected passwords, and each year millions of people are the victim of social media accounts hacks, had personal information stolen or fell prey to online scams.

Learning how to stay safe on social media is especially important with the increasing prevalence of integrated payment systems and apps, phone verification, and touch technology. When someone steals an account, they likely have access to bank or credit card information, home or work addresses, and other very personal information that could be used to steal the victim’s identity.

These 5 tips will help you to protect yourself on social media.

Use Privacy and Security Settings to Protect Your Information from Social Media Phishing and Scams

Social media accounts offer a few forms of security and privacy settings to help users two-factor authenticate their accounts and secure who can see information to tighten social media safety measures.

Facebook has some of the most sophisticated safety measures, with controls that allow users to update how different groups of friends see their profile and information. Rather than sharing information to everyone, limiting your account to a select few very close friends, or not sharing personal information like baby photos at all is vital to combat social media phishing and social media scams.

So, what information should users keep private to close-friends-only?

• Information regarding location
• Home or work addresses
• Phone numbers and emails
• birth date and other private information

Why? Even information about a user’s home-town, maiden name, and birth-date can be used to answer privacy questions on bank financial platforms and other websites. If the information isn’t kept private, users are unprotected from social media scams.

We are committed to mitigating the negative impact of unhealthy technology use by empowering students to make safe and healthy decisions about technology.

Stay Safe on Social Media With Strong Passwords and Secure Accounts

Strong passwords will protect online accounts from being hacked, which help a great deal in terms of identity theft, social media scams, and account takeovers by hackers.

Tips for a good password:

• Use a unique mix of letters, numbers, and signs
• Have at least 10 characters
• Change your password every 6 months

Most people can benefit from using a password manager which will automatically handle this type of security for you, so you don’t have to remember passwords. It’s also important to use a different password on each of your accounts to ensure that if someone gets into one, they don’t have access to all of them. This will maximize the ability to be safe on social media across any applications.

Manage Your Friends and Followers

Everyone receives friend and follower requests, but users should be careful of who they accept. For example, if strangers add you, they could be attempting to scam you, and others might be bots. If a user is able to trust the people on their friends’ list, it is one less thing to worry about.

What should users stay away from?

• Accounts with no information
• Accounts with only a few friends
• Accounts that immediately start sending you messages with no real purpose, especially in broken English
• Accounts that start sending you links, promising things, asking for investment, or promising love

Most social media platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, are now spending quite a bit of time and money in ensuring that their users are protected from bots and social media scams. However, users should always exercise a certain amount of caution when accepting friend requests and interacting with others to stay safe on social media.

Watch out for Social Media Scams and Phishing

Social media scams and social media phishing are two of the most common problems on social media platforms today. The links used for these types of attacks normally attempt to steal either your identity, steal money, or work to spread a bot or virus to your network of colleagues, friends, and family.

Scams and phishing tactics include:

• Chain letters
• Quick requests for money, sometimes from friends who have just added you from a new account
• Links to quizzes and games that require your phone number or bank details first
• Links to photos and click-bait article titles that take you off the network (likely phishing scams)
• Shortened URLs, which can be used to hide malware and viruses on a link
• Pay an upfront fee to work from home/make money
• Sweepstakes and lottery winnings (these are never distributed through social media, even if you play)
• Sudden romantic interests asking for money

Some of these social media scams are harmless, but others can be used to actively steal a great deal of information and money. It’s important to be careful, to double check anything before you click on it, and to be careful when and how users give information to a third-party site.

Research Everything Before You Click and Share Data

To really stay safe social media, users should do their homework before accepting, clicking, or sharing digital content. This means paying attention to what’s being sent and shared, evaluating sources, and taking a close look into anything that seems off or slightly suspicious.

For example, if a friend asks for money under suspicious circumstances, you could follow through on this by calling them to ask about their request. Another example is, if a friend you thought was already a Facebook connection adds you, you could call them to ask about it.. This might feel awkward, but it will prevent potential hacking, spamming or phishing issues.
Similarly, if you see an astounding bit of news from a website you don’t know, it’s almost always better to look it up through your own Google search instead of clicking on a link. If you’re being prompted to fill in data for a quiz, you could look up the quiz and see if it’s reliable (or better yet, never give information to a quiz app).

Taking the time to look into things that are suspicious or even slightly questionable will help users and their friends and family stay safe on social media, even as scam tactics change and become more sophisticated.

The Bottom Line

The internet can be a dangerous place and social media is no exception. Taking the time to protect your data and to use the security tools provided to you by the app to control how and where you share data is the best way to protect yourself online. You should also take the time to periodically review your social media accounts, change passwords, and to review any apps or plugins that have access to your account, so you can maintain long-term security. The internet can be relatively safe so long as you’re cognizant of risks and take steps to mitigate them.

We are committed to mitigating the negative impact of unhealthy technology use by empowering students to make safe and healthy decisions about technology.