“Best Social Media Security Tools” is a guide that will help you keep your social media accounts secure. It includes a list of ten different security tools that you can use to improve security settings. These tools are completely free, and it will walk you through the steps for using each of them.
What are the best social media security tools? What are the top tip to secure your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Google accounts? These tools and tip can help you keep your online presence safe.
Common social media security risks
Unattended social media accounts
It’s a good idea to reserve your brand’s handle on all social media channels, even if you don’t plan to use them all right away. This allows you to maintain a consistent presence across networks, making it easy for people to find you.
But it’s important not to ignore the accounts you don’t use yet, the ones you stopped using, or don’t use often.
Unmonitored social accounts can be the target of hackers, who could start posting fraudulent messages under your name.
Once they gain control, hackers can send anything. That could mean false information that’s damaging to your business. Or maybe it’s virus-infected links that cause serious problems for followers. And you won’t even notice until your customers start coming to you for help.
Human error
Everyone makes mistakes. In today’s busy world, it is all too easy for an employee to accidentally expose the company to threats online. In fact, “employee weakness” was responsible for 20% of cyberattacks, according to the EY Global Information Security Survey.
Something as simple as clicking on the wrong link or downloading the wrong file could wreak havoc.
Some online challenges and quizzes can also be problematic. By completing them, employees can accidentally create social media security issues.
Those “learn your elf name” and 10-year-challenge posts might seem like harmless fun. But they can actually provide scammers with information commonly used to hack passwords.
The AARP issued a warning about these types of quizzes to make sure their demographic of older internet users are aware of the issue.
But younger people—including your employees—are not immune.
Vulnerable third-party apps
Locking down your own social accounts is great. But hackers may still be able to gain access to secure social media through vulnerabilities in connected third-party apps
Hackers recently accessed Twitter accounts associated with the International Olympics Committee. They got in through a third-party analytics app. FC Barcelona was a victim of the same hack
Phishing attacks and scams
Phishing scams create social media information security risks. In a phishing scam, the goal is to get you or your employees to hand over passwords, banking details, or other private information.
One common phishing scam involves fake coupons for big-name brands like Costco, Starbucks, and Bath & Body Works. This is especially popular on Facebook. To claim the coupon, you have to hand over personal information like your address and birth date.
Some scammers are bolder, asking for banking information and passwords. The Singapore Police Force recently issued a warning about this type of scam. New variations use hashtags related to government programs for COVID-19 relief.
Imposter accounts
It’s relatively easy for an imposter to create a social media account that looks like it belongs to your company. This is one reason why it’s so valuable to get verified on social networks.
LinkedIn’s latest transparency report notes that they took action on 21.6 million fake accounts in just six months. The majority of those accounts (95%) were blocked automatically at registration. But more than 67,000 fake accounts were only addressed once members reported them.
3 minute read
Here at ZeroFox, we get asked all the time, “what are your social media security best practices?” We’ve been experts in the space for some time and we’re always happy to spread the good word. As social media continues to be a critical tool for brand awareness and a top target of hackers, here are our top observations and 7 social media security best practices:
Why Social Media Security Matters:
- Social media is an often overlooked area when it comes to information security. Because social is sometimes treated like a personal communication tool rather than a business platform, risk monitoring & governance, employee security awareness and corporate security policies are rarely in place. But social is undeniably a business system, one that we use daily to communicate with our customers, grow our revenues and engage our employees. According to Hootsuite, 52% of all online brand discovery happens in public social feeds.
- Fixing the neglect for social media security is a bit more tricky than simply realizing it exists, because unlike traditional business platforms (think email), the enterprise doesn’t control the data or the access. Organizations need to take a different approach. They need to build employee awareness and social media security best practices around the dangers of targeted attacks and cybercrime on social media. They need to expand their phish testing to social media. They need to implement real-time external risk monitoring capabilities to identify when a targeted attack is happening. Most of all, they need to be able to remediate risk.
- Social media represents the largest modern threat vector: it’s got more connectivity (billions of people), it’s more trusted (everyone is your friend) and it’s less visibility (simply by its nature) than any other communication or business platform. Security teams need to join their sales, marketing and customer success groups in the digital era, follow social media security best practices and implement risk monitoring & remediation technology around social media to secure their organization’s future.
Tips for social media security and privacy
Use unique passwords for each social network
It’s a pain, but it is also absolutely essential that you don’t use the same password for Twitter as you do for, say, Facebook, Instagram and other social tools. Using a single password makes it easy for hackers, as gaining access to one means gaining access to all – and imagine how painful it will be when you find you’re locked out of your entire online life. When you use one password for multiple services, you’re only as safe as the least secure service you use.
Watch your mailbox
How can these social account hacks happen? By direct messages to you. Yes, using the same approach phishers have used for years it tends to be a rogue link in a message or email, perhaps sent to look like it’s from a colleague or friend, that exposes that all-important password. Phishers will find out who you would expect to receive an email from and use that as a way in. This social engineering approach has worked on staff at major newspapers and government organisations, so don’t fool yourself into thinking hacking social network accounts must require more sophisticated techniques.
Don’t be too personal
Social engineering is where attackers use whatever information they can glean from your public profiles – date of birth, education, interests – to try to get into your accounts on all sorts of services. Just imagine how easily someone can find out the name of your first pet or school from your Facebook profile, then think about how many services use them as security questions. Keep as much of your profile private as you can, and think twice before posting absolutely every aspect of your life.
Lock your phone
It’s not only faceless scammers on the internet. Your phone can end up in the hands of a stranger, giving access to your social accounts (and more). It’s not just rogue updates: once they’re in they can obtain your email address, target your friends using your profile as bait, and even change your password. To make it as difficult as possible for an intruder, you should always enable the passcode lock on your phone, and set it to time out at no more than a few minutes.
Use the block button
When a spammer follows you and sends you links, don’t just ignore it. For the sake of others who are less well informed than you, always report the account as spam. The social networking service will monitor it and, if enough people take the same action, remove the account. It won’t stop spammers coming back with new accounts but it at least hinders their efforts.
Conclusion
Taking a calculated risk is an essential part of growing a business, but every entrepreneur needs to understand the risks too. In this guide you’ll learn how to protect the privacy of your company, your employees and your customers from malicious hackers. You’ll also find five top-notch social media security tools that will keep all of your information safe from digital tyrants!