Happy Social Media Day! It’s hard to believe that social media—at least in the modern sense—has already been around for almost a quarter-century. Seriously! LinkedIn launched in 2003, and Facebook launched in 2004.
Since then, social media has become an essential business tool; however, it also provides cybercriminals with an opportunity to exploit your organization. Let’s observe Social Media Day by reviewing some simple security line items to keep your business safe while you take advantage of the capabilities social media can provide.
As strange as it may sound coming from an IT provider, there’s only so much that technology can do to protect your business. Many threats nowadays specifically avoid the protective technology you implement by targeting your people.
Remind your team of the dangers that social media can bring… particularly through accidental oversharing.
Communicate that a significant amount of information can be gathered from public social media, particularly from photos, with your team. Background details, such as unlocked computer screens or project boards, can reveal a great deal, and social engineers can exploit this information to their advantage. Pay attention to what you share, and ensure that your team members do the same on both their personal social media accounts and on your official business accounts.
Similarly, numerous benefits come from basic security practices, particularly on social media.
Let’s consider what your business’ social media is. At its core, it is a direct line of communication between you and your audience—something that is incredibly valuable. Imagine the damage that could be done if someone wishing your business ill gained access to your organization’s social media accounts. In the best-case scenario, your social media presence could be deleted, with massive damage to your reputation potentially on the line.
Therefore, you must keep these accounts as secure as possible, starting with the passwords used to access them. If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a billion times: your passwords need to be long, complex, and unique to each account. Using a password manager can help create and organize these passwords securely without putting the pressure on you and your team to make and remember them all. In addition, social media accounts can also be protected with multi-factor authentication standards, which add an extra layer of security to your logins beyond just the need for a password. Every single one of your business accounts—including your social media—should have this in place.
There’s no denying that social media, as a general rule, has a much more casual vibe than most other business marketing efforts. Unfortunately, this fosters a more inherent trust that can be—and often is—taken advantage of by attackers.
Ensure your team members are aware of common scams and attacks to be on the lookout for. For instance, direct messages on social media are often used to share phishing messages, complete with nefarious links. The IT advice to “think before you click” can serve you and your business extremely well on social media. You even need to be careful about how you access these platforms. It is alarmingly simple for a cybercriminal to put together a fake login page to steal your credentials, so avoid clicking on any links to social media sites and instead navigate to them manually.
…but we can’t forget that your business IT also needs to be secured. We can help Northern Virginia companies protect their technology and the data they depend on.
Learn more about how we can implement all of the above and more for your business. Reach out to us today at (571) 470-5594.
