Social media can be an invaluable tool that companies can use to build their brand, attract new customers and sell products. However, it can also be a tool that cybercriminals use to extort money, ruin a brand’s reputation or gain unauthorized access to personal information. Today, you need to be very diligent about cybersecurity and the weakest part of most companies’ security operations is the people. The most effective way to protect your company from security breaches that come about due to human error is to train your employees and set up clear guidelines and best practices for social media security.
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What are some examples of social media security breaches?
There are countless social media scams out there. For instance, hackers may post links in the comments sections of your posts, once someone clicks the link, it takes them to a website that immediately downloads a virus to the device. Another scam involves hackers setting up a fake profile for your company and then demanding money to hand the account over to you. Scammers also often use these fake accounts to get people to make a purchase on their website and then use their personal and credit card information to get money.
Potential dangers of social media scams
As you can see, some of the social media scams are aimed at your clients, others have your company or employees as the target. Regardless of who the hackers are trying to hurt, these scams can cost your company a lot of money, do damage to brand reputation and ruin your customers’ trust. Here are a few things you can do to help:
Secure your social media passwords
A good password is your first line of defense against hackers. First of all, make sure that your employees use strong, complex passwords for company social media accounts and that the passwords are changed weekly or monthly depending on the size of your company. It is important to use a unique password each time, don’t rotate them. Another great media security measure is to set up two-factor authentication for all social media accounts.
Be proactive about your social media security
It is best to identify and prevent potential threats long before they can cause any harm, so make a habit of auditing your friends and followers on social media and removing strange, fake or otherwise worrying accounts. It is also crucial to constantly monitor social media for posts and accounts that seem to be impersonating your brand, providing brand information, links and promo codes and report them immediately.
Hire a social security manager
To improve your chances against hackers, hire a full-time or part-time social security manager whose job will be to create and post content on social media, reply to comments and messages and identify and resolve any potential security threats. You also need to set up a specific process for approving all posts and customer communication on social media and have your social security manager handle these approvals.
Teach your employees social media security awareness
Your best chance against social media security breaches is to train all your employees about security threats. At Hackcontrol we can test and evaluate your systems and employees to identify weak points in your security practices and train your employees to respond to threats effectively.
