Social media occupies a huge part of our life. From waking up to going to bed, we scroll through the feed of social media platforms a hell lot of a time. It has become too much to handle for a lot of people.
It has become so big that people are getting addicted to it.
Whether it is tracking the news on Twitter, conversing with your work colleagues, posting your vacation pictures on Instagram, making those silly videos on Tiktok, or selling something on Facebook, you and your family have a social media footprint.
We can say that social media has brought the world into our hands. Along with enjoying free movies on 1337x, you also can kill some free time just by scrolling social media feeds. When you are using social media, you might not know that you are a tempting threat on social media.
Just the way you need to secure your online payments and information from the potential cybercriminals and cyber threats, your social media is also exposed to those same threats or might be more serious.
Why Social Media Is A Tempting Target
Social media platforms know a lot about us. We also update too much personal information on social media platforms. While we are doing so, we think that we are just sharing all that information only with our close circle who are connected with us on social media sites.
However, in reality, you are making all that information accessible to cybercriminals.
Your Facebook profile has your name, where you live, your education, work information, your picture, also your family and friends’ picture, and your DOB.
Isn’t all these enough to carry out an evil work?
Yes. They are more than enough. Every now and then, we hear about someone’s profile being hacked. When the hacker is hacking a profile, they can do anything with that and access everything that you used to access. Most importantly, they can read your chats.
Now, think a little deeper and understand what a cybercriminal can do. Apart from that, a cybercriminal just needs to launch a phishing attack to get the whole control of your social media accounts.
Nowadays, social media accounts are also linked with some other applications and software as well, such as shopping sites. So, cybercriminals are getting bonuses and can also get access to your payment information.
They can do all these things just by watching your profile.
Things Social Media Users Need To Know
When you are using social media platforms, you must be aware of the online threats and also need to stay safe.
In case you are the cyber security expert of your family, you also need to take the charge of educating them on the most frequent threats that they might encounter while using social media.
Phishing Attempts
When it comes to spoofing real websites, including social media sites, hackers have become unbelievably skilled. In case you get a warning or login alert that your account has been hacked, you need to ensure that the message or mail is legitimate.
Always avoid clicking on links that you get through messenger or email. Visit the actual social media site and check your account there before taking action.
Oversharing
Always remember you have to be really picky about what you are sharing on your social media handles. Sharing personal information and vacation plans might put your private information at risk.
Apart from that, you might not think that the information you are sharing might hint your password to not only your social media sites but also to some other serious matters.
Social Engineering
The bad guys always know how to prey on fear. Every day they are becoming really good at it. Direct message on social media often leads to possible threats; it can be of any type; it can ask for donations or someone from your network asking for help.