Social media is such a critical part of business these days, making it extremely vital that you keep your accounts safe. Imagine if someone gained access to your accounts? It would be devastating and it could potentially have a severe negative impact on your business.
Things like:
- Stealing your account and changing the handle in order to take your hard-earned followers.
- Sending out compromised links to your followers.
- Attempting to phish personal information from your customers.
If you haven’t thought of it before, here are 5 ways to secure your social media accounts and protect both your privacy and security.
- Always enable the two-factor authentication method: While two-factor authentication has been around for several years, it is in recent times that it has become extremely popular. To access your social media account, the two-factor authentication makes you enter another piece of information. 2FA, or multi-factor authentication, is said to be more secure than passwords and hence, gives you peace of mind, even if hackers steal your social media account passwords. In fact, cybersecurity professionals claim that two-factor authentication can also protect your accounts if you have malware on your system.
- 2. Do not click on shortened URLs: Think twice about clicking on shortened links, even if you receive it from a trusted source. Sometimes, you may end up doing it, but if your antennae go up, close the web page without clicking anything on the page. This move will protect you from clickjacking that hackers use to gain access to social media profiles and other sensitive information.
- Use HTTPS to log in to your social media accounts: Do not use any other URL to log into your social media account. Make sure you use HTTPS URLs to access your accounts. This will prevent information from being accessed while it is being transmitted in the cyberspace. Use VPN as an added security measure as well when browsing the web.
- Change your social media accounts’ passwords regularly: Get into the habit of changing your social media account password every month. Create an alphanumeric password and make sure you use a different one for each account. Avoid using passwords like names, dates of birth, and other such information that hackers can get access to easily and compromise your social media accounts.
- Be selective in third-party applications: When you use a third-party application, such as a social media post scheduler, they will require access to your account. Make sure you are only authorizing legitimate applications to gain access. And be sure to read the details of what exactly you are authorizing the particular application to gain access to.
Social media sites are a wonderful networking and communications platform. However, social media accounts can be hacked if you don’t take the right security precautions. Besides having suitable anti-malware software, follow these ways to secure your social media accounts.
