Social media has become deeply ingrained in today’s culture, from business to personal connection. Businesses stake their reputation on the platforms, and individuals and families use them to connect with one another in ways they never were able to before. This is why it’s so scary to think about what would happen if an account were hacked or taken over.
Let’s look at how social media hacks are disruptive and potentially catastrophic to a business owner.
For a reference point, consider how much you share on social media. You’ve probably shared quite a lot over the years, if you’re like most people. You might have even shared a little more than you would prefer or expect, not all of which was intentional. These cyberattacks tend to be pretty effective because you don’t think of them as a cyberattack, but as a person you might know reaching out for help, or some other social engineering scam.
Phishing attacks leverage social media all the time specifically to take advantage of unwary businesses and individuals. Sometimes phishing attacks can take over an entire account. What would you do if your business’ Facebook page got hacked? Let’s look at what might happen.
If your business falls victim to a social media hack, you can expect the following to happen:
If your business’ social media account is hacked, you might lose access to a valuable tool that helps you communicate with your clientele. You also lose an outlet of communicating with them about your services, too, and all of your time spent working on these accounts and followings won’t mean anything. The attacker might even waste your advertising dollars to distribute their own attacks, further ruining your good reputation.
Social media attacks could use your accounts to distribute content that others might find distasteful. Not only will they ruin your reputation, they will also post content that could go against the community standards, putting your account in further jeopardy.
Facebook gives users the ability to access other accounts with the same login information, and while we don’t advocate for you to do this, well, there’s a chance that you already have—and hackers are going to use that to your detriment.
Cybercriminals know how valuable your social media accounts are, and they are willing to extort money out of you to make a profit off of it. If your social media accounts are compromised, you can expect a hacker to try to make money off your misery.
The same password and account access best practices for your business accounts can be applied to social media. We also recommend multi-factor authentication methods whenever possible, as well as constant monitoring for suspicious activity.
