We all like to check on our favorite social media sites either while waiting for something (food,queuing, etc), driving on the road,or even uploading our precious photos moment into social networking sites. However, do you know that for this convenience we have to deal with a vulnerability to cyber criminals and the mess if we are not careful?
Social Media Sites are very attractive targets for cyber criminals because they provide a lot of personal information and the worst is that the security settings are open and they can launch the malwares. They (bad guys) explore our profiles, posts and status updates. Adjust the attack on the people who we like or not like, and also may collect information about potential passwords.
Also, the social media sites will be utilized by scammers to get what they want using the headlines, daily activities on the timelines to trick the victims in order to get the information they need such as credit card number and soon on.
But don’t worry, below are the best tips for us to protect our Social Media Sites:
1. Narrow the people who can see you on your networks/profiles/circles and filter the information published from your social medias sites on the website. Also, be careful of information you post online, and do not run a program that was circulated among friends and contacts, without first checking their legitimacy.
2. Strengthen your social media site’s password. This can be done by choosing or creating the passwords that can be easily guessed. And also try to regularly change your password every 90 days with using not the same previous characters.
3. Always update browser and operating system patch to the latest. Using the additional Anti-Virus or Anti-Malware is very recommended since they will providing a safer browsing experience, and virus attacks. In addition, you can also use a free tool from the Norton Safe Web Norton for Facebook users who scan the wall for all HTML links and notify user if there is a malicious link.
4. Be careful when clicking on links from unknown senders. Always pay attention to the level of caution around messages from within a website or who apparently sent by a website. Cause, the attackers can give you the phishing url.
5. Don’t forget to sort or filter who will be your friends if you are using the Social Networking. Adding unknown friends could be a boomerang to you in the future if they were attackers.
6. For social media sites LinkedIn, you can see this tips for protecting your linkedIn.
Happy surfing on your favorite social media sites without worries
Picture: Courtesy of Propdev.
