Time to start protecting your social media business accounts!

When you do a Google search on hacking Instagram you will find pages upon pages on helpful tools, and apps to help you do just that. Some of the links are legit, some aren’t, but the point I am trying to make is, that when there is a will, there is a way. And it is happening more often than you think. Being in IT we often get phone calls asking for help when someone’s social media business account gets hacked. Unfortunately, there is literally nothing we can do. The best-case scenario you will lose your account. The worst – this account will be used to cause damage to others and you, as an owner of the account will be held responsible. If you are using a free social media platform to promote your business, you are on your own. These platforms provide you with a free space, but because it is free, there is no support provided and the responsibility for securing the accounts falls on the user.

Listen carefully, because when you are hacked you are going to be losing business and all the hard work that you have put in (or paid someone good money to create and develop) will be lost. There is no way to recover it. Period!

Password management (setting up complicated and unique password) is another way to help in securing access to your accounts as well as setting up 2 factor authentication. Make sure you keep these credentials secure and not easy to guess.

Education on phishing scams and their recognition is even a better way to keep your accounts more secure. Phishing seems to be one of the most used ways of hacking social media accounts. This can be done either via email or instant messages. The rule of thumb is to never click on the link or attachment, sent via those means. Urgent calls for help from your friends will not be done via messenger. They will call you if in trouble, not sent a message through a messenger of any sort. If you ever receive such message don’t click on it. Call your friend / family member etc. to check. If you are unable to contact them directly, call another friend or family member to check what’s going on. If they don’t have your phone number to call you for help, they are probably not your friends, so, be suspicious! Don’t trust them to be whom they claim to be!

In conclusion, we no longer can afford to be lacks about our passwords and internet accessible business tools (social media accounts) and we have to start thinking about the fact that these social media accounts are our valuable assets, and they need to be made secure. Since the responsibility of securing them falls on us, we need to get educated and smart using them, just like you would protect your wallet or house keys from a thief.

If you want to learn more about phishing and how to recognize, you can always contact us!

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