Social Media Safety Awareness Tips
Social media provides a way to stay connected and share with others, but did you know that the cyber criminals will also use social media as another technique to conduct their attacks. It is important to protect yourself as well as know the common signs of someone trying to trick or scam you.
Over social media one common method is that cyber criminals will take over someone’s social media account. Once they control the account a criminal will pretend to be the accounts owner and post an urgent message to everyone connected to that account. This message will say they are traveling internationally, and that they were just mugged and desperately need you to send them money.
If you send money, you are not helping your friend you are actually sending money to the criminal. Another common method is similar to phishing email attacks. Cyber criminals post messages attempting to trick you into clicking on a link that takes you to a malicious website.
Watch out for messages that seem urgent suspicious or try to make you feel rushed or afraid. If you receive an odd message from a friend and are not sure if it was really then that sent it call them on the phone to confirm.
Finally, attackers may use software to try and guess your password, if they gain access, they can then use your account to launch attacks on your contacts and friends. Always try protecting each of your social media accounts with a unique strong password and enable two factor authentication whenever possible.
Social media provides a way to stay connected and share with others, but did you know that the cyber criminals will also use social media as another technique to conduct their attacks. It is important to protect yourself as well as know the common signs of someone trying to trick or scam you.
Over social media one common method is that cyber criminals will take over someone’s social media account. Once they control the account a criminal will pretend to be the accounts owner and post an urgent message to everyone connected to that account. This message will say they are traveling internationally, and that they were just mugged and desperately need you to send them money.
If you send money, you are not helping your friend you are actually sending money to the criminal. Another common method is similar to phishing email attacks. Cyber criminals post messages attempting to trick you into clicking on a link that takes you to a malicious website.
Watch out for messages that seem urgent suspicious or try to make you feel rushed or afraid. If you receive an odd message from a friend and are not sure if it was really then that sent it call them on the phone to confirm.
Finally, attackers may use software to try and guess your password, if they gain access, they can then use your account to launch attacks on your contacts and friends. Always try protecting each of your social media accounts with a unique strong password and enable two factor authentication whenever possible.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from SecurityOrb.com authored by Kellep Charles. Read the original post at: https://securityorb.com/child-safety-2/social-media-safety-awareness-tips/