Many of us just can’t imagine everyday life without the Internet and social media. We enjoy cloud gaming, gambling in online casinos (to understand how they work, you can click here: play 9 masks of fire), and communicating with people all over the world. However, the use of social media requires certain security measures. Here are some tips on how to protect yourself from cyber-attacks and manage your digital footprint.
Opt For Strong Passwords
Accounts are often hacked and stolen, and with such actions of intruders on your behalf, friends may receive messages with threats or requests to transfer money. To avoid this and protect your social media account, use strong. Moreover, it is important to use different passwords for all social media accounts you have.
The strong password should consist of a minimum of 16 letters, numbers, and special characters. The system may offer to automatically generate it (immediately write down or save the combination so you don’t forget it later). You can also create a password yourself, but never use your name, phone number, date of birth, or pet name to create it. This is Personally Identifiable Information, and people can find it online.
Manage Your Social Media Privacy Settings
Settings are created for a certain reason, and by using them competently, you can protect your page and yourself. Privacy settings allow you to limit access to your social media account. Only your friends will be able to view your information then, and even hide some private information (such as photos) completely. There are several possible variations of settings (depending on the specific social network) to ensure the safe use of social media accounts:
- One-time code login. Every time you receive a code to log in, you will receive a code to the number linked to your page.
- Level of privacy. Mark who can view certain data (photos, list of communities, gifts, location of photos taken, list of friends). You can block access to strangers, everyone, or just some of your friends list.
- Blacklist. By blacklisting certain users, you prevent them from contacting you or trying to contact you.
Don’t Give Out Your Personal Information
How to protect yourself on social networks? Don’t post personal information about yourself. On some accounts, you can learn everything about their owners: full name, place of work, neighborhood and even home, hobbies, most frequently visited places, and much more. And all this data can be used by criminals for criminal purposes. So limit yourself to a minimum of information, and it will be enough.
Exercise Caution About Friend Requests From Unknown People
Encounter only those people you know personally, and who turned out to be more or less reliable. A person with whom you have recently met may plan to deceive rob or other criminal actions. Your account and the information you have on it will help him or her carry out the plan.
Therefore, there are two important things to remember. First, do not accept friendship offers from strangers. Second, periodically check your friends list and delete pages that show signs of hacking or suspicious activity.
Be Careful With Messages
It is important to learn how to correctly conduct correspondence because they can be used against you. Simple tips will help you to prevent scams:
- Do not share revelations and secrets through messages. You may break the connection with the person you trusted, and he can keep the correspondence with secrets and use it for blackmail.
- Do not reply to messages coming from strangers, even if they seem innocent, and contain phrases like “Hi, how are you?” or “Let’s get acquainted.” Sure, some people practice dating through social media, and sometimes these attempts are successful. But also a stranger may be practicing recruitment, scamming, or cyberbullying.
Don’t Click On Links Immediately
Do not follow links sent to you on social networks. Links from unknown individuals may contain viruses and be dangerous to your computer or mobile device. In addition, linked sites often contain obscene or otherwise objectionable information. You also should not download all the applications immediately. They may request access to your data (it is not known for what purposes the information may be used). Some applications also initiate the download of third-party applications.
Following these tips will take some diligence on your part, but it will help you secure your digital life.
Also published on Medium.
