Introduction
Social media has become an integral part of our daily activities. We primarily depend on it for news, entertainment, business opportunities, networking, and social engagements. Due to its evasive nature, half of the global population happens to be users.
Considering how much most fabrics of our lives depend on these digital tools, it has become imperative for one to take the security of their social media accounts a second thought.
We’ve all had that friend who made a post apologizing on social media over the behavior of their social media account(s) stating that it got hacked or got compromised for a while.
Steps to protect your account
Here are a few steps you can take to protect your account whiles taking full benefit of its services.
- Set a strong and unique password: This is a no-brainer. If anyone can easily guess your password, you need to change that password. Use uppercases, lowercases, numbers, and symbols, and make sure the password includes words that are not related to you so they cannot be easily guessed.
- Check web address before login in: Anytime you have to log in to your Facebook account either from a link shared or from a web browser, check the web address to be sure before you key in your credentials. Some URLs can be Phishing sites positioned to “harvest” your personal information. This is how most people get hacked. Next time a friend sends you a link to some online flash sale or a breaking news article whatsoever, that requires you to log in, kindly check that URL. Chances are it is not accurate.
- 2 Step verification You might have seen Facebook promote this security feature often. It is time to take that advice. Setting up the two-factor authentication, prevents your account from being hacked as the login credentials will not work until you verify them. Also, link your email to your social media account as a last resort when things go wrong.
- Share but be careful of how much you share There are social engineers that can use your confidential information to unlock your social media account. This also gives some criminals enough arsenal to attack you in your personal spaces. Try as much as possible to keep some information to yourself as it is one effortless way for certain people to know what you do and where you are at any time.
- Log out of unrecognized devices. When you log into a friend’s laptop or phone, it is registered as a device your account can log in from. Make sure to remove these devices once you are done as it ends up compromising you later. It is also advisable to use the private mode of browsers when you are logging in to your social media account from a friend’s computer or mobile phone.
- Do not forget your passwords or answers to your security questions: Social media accounts are becoming so much, that each login can get lost in the process of creating new accounts. You might have met that friend that could not log into their account because they forgot their passwords.
Keep a diary of passwords safely tucked in your belongings if these passwords are becoming overwhelming for you.
Stay safe out there and have an amazing social media day.
What other security advice did we miss? Share yours in the comment section.
