Don’t Let Your Guard Down on Social Media

Cybersecurity has many facets, but one of the most overlooked is social media. Hackers frequently use social engineering tactics to target users through their favorite social media platforms. If you’re not observant enough, you could put your business at risk by accepting the wrong friend request or clicking the wrong link. To help you and your employees keep security high on the priority list, we have put together the following tips.

Fake Accounts

Hackers might create fake accounts to try to trick users into accepting friend requests or to pose as someone that their target knows. Some of the telltale signs of these accounts are a lack of posting history, a small friends list, and having been created recently. These types of accounts are simply looking to add “friends” that they can later exploit.

Unsolicited Messages

Hackers will use their fake accounts to send messages designed to provoke a response in some way. They might pretend to be a friend asking for a favor, perhaps even a friend who you have not heard from in some time. It’s on you to ensure that the people you message on social media are their authentic selves and not a hacker in disguise, so if you ever have any doubts, be sure to vet messages in an appropriate way before you build your response, if you send one at all.

Phishing Links

People often share links to news websites, articles, reviews, and so on through their social media profiles. Before you try to click on anything, you should do your due diligence and ensure that the link is not going to infect your computer with malware or some other sinister threat. When in doubt, don’t click on a link.

Sneaky Quizzes

The fun quizzes you might see on social media are not just for fun; they might also be collecting information on users. It might be exciting at the moment to find out what your Hogwarts house is, but it’s also revealing a fair amount of information about you as a user when you answer questions. Be especially careful of quizzes that ask you to divulge important information about yourself.

Training is Incredibly Important

It’s important that you provide regular training sessions for your employees so they don’t accidentally put your business or themselves at risk on social media. You should cover social media best practices with them every so often so they know what to look for and when to be careful with their connections on social media.

To this end, Computerware can help. We can train your employees and help them keep best practices in mind throughout the workday. To learn more, reach out to us at (703) 821-8200.