Social Media- Exposing Personal Data
In the time when everyone has their social essence and in today’s world of data breaches, it becomes very necessary to be defensible against such invasions.
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The time when all your details are available online-
• Your facial recognition database on TikTok
• Your fingerprints database on smartphone companies
• All your friends and family list on Facebook
• Your videos choices and audio database on YouTube
• Your work and professional colleague database on LinkedIn
• Celebrities and your ideals you follow on Twitter and Instagram
And many more, many more…..
These are only some of that information of yours available online and it’s not a big bargain to steal them especially from your own social media account. Social media poses biggest threat when it comes to data breach.
“A recent Stratecast study states that 22% of social media users have fallen victim to a security-related incident, and recent documented attacks support the numbers.”
According to ZeroFox, “Social media represents the largest modern threat vector: it’s got more connectivity (billions of people), it’s more trusted (everyone is your friend) and it’s less visibility (simply by its nature) than any other communication or business platform.”
But the loss is not only just a concern of organisations,
a penalty is a penalty
and every individual is responsible for his/her own security.
Some of the biggest social media security breaches in history must not be forgotten where data of millions of user were exposed.
The social network of business professionals, LinkedIn, became victim of data breach in 2012 and 2016 with 165 million user accounts disclosure. And those emails and passwords were sold by a hacker at 5 bitcoins(around $2,000 at that time).
Yahoo, with 3 billion user accounts compromised on 2013-2014 faced the biggest data breach of history. The real names, date of births and telephone numbers of 500 million user were uncovered.
Facebook, on September 2018, was compromised with 50 million user account. The access tokens were stolen which would give access to the account without re-entering the password.
The attack on Quora took place on December 2018, with user data leakage. The company acquitted a statement with details of what occurred, what information was involved and what the company is doing to rectify such in future.
Twitter also hasn't escaped from the invasion. In May 2018, and recently in July 2020, the twitter handles of the prominent figure were hacked and the hacker asked for the bitcoins. Former US President, Barak Obama, Billionaire Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates and the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. These were the some prominent whose twitter was targeted by hackers.
How to secure your Social Media Account: Tips to Remember
1. Close Unused Accounts: The concept of ‘Out of site, out of mind' does not work with Security. Eliminate all your old accounts that are no longer in use.
2. Enable Two-Factor Authentication: In 2-factor authentication, the user needs to provide extra credentials along with the password. The credential could be some key, security question, mobile permission, security key, etc. It is the best method to prevent unauthorized access to your account.
3. Keep Software’s and Firmware updated: Outdated software and firmware are the sources of vulnerability and these updates could prevent you from such identified ones.
4. Limit 3rd Party Access: Don’t authorize an application to access your social media handles. The the only legitimate application should be authorized.
5. Caution- New Friend Request: Be very reluctant while accepting anyone's friend request. Only accept the requests whom you know.
6. Public Wi-Fi- Public Data: Never access your confidential details, social media on public Wi-Fi. These aren’t secure and your account and details could be compromised and could be publicly available. Use a VPN, while on public wireless.
7. Have a Strong Password: Always keep passwords strong and hard to guess.
How to keep passwords strong and safe?
8. Account Monitoring: Regularly monitor your social account for activities, logins, etc. and if you notice any suspicious activity, look for it and take necessary actions.
9. Change Default Privacy Settings: Lock down you social media account from the begging. Select who can see your post, who can send you requests, what information to be visible on profile, to who…
10. What you Post is what you Trickling: Be very careful while sharing any personal information online. Never share any detail that is confidential and could lead to privacy invasion.
11. Always LOGOUT: Always logout from the account and make sure that passwords are not being stored in browser.
What to do IF I'M HACKED??
First most and most importantly, don't panic..
Logout from all your accounts from all devices, change the passwords and review the past activities- if you find anything that you haven't posted, delete it.
You can get recovery help from:
References:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.csoonline.com/article/2130877/the-biggest-data-breaches-of-the-21st-century.amp.html
https://www.mcafee.com/enterprise/en-in/security-awareness/cybersecurity/cybercriminal-social-media.html
https://www.google.com/amp/s/auth0.com/blog/amp/11-of-the-worst-data-breaches-in-media/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/technology-53425822
https://www.cybrary.it/blog/2018/03/secure-social-media-accounts-10-helpful-tips/
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