Today, social networks are becoming more and more popular, every day new users register in such networks as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and others. In social networks, people can communicate, share photos and videos. And the more popular such resources become, the more interest in them exhibiting crooks and the more dangerous it becomes to use them. Now and then, scandals erupt in the news about someone’s identity or photos being stolen, someone’s profile at an online casino being hacked, a Cookie Casino login and password being picked, and all the money being deducted. In order not to run into hackers, spammers, and scammers who steal personal data, you need to know the rules of security in social networks.
- When registering on a social network, it’s better to think up a random password consisting of not less than 6-7 characters. The password from your social network account and your email password should not be the same, this will make it difficult for hackers. And if the passwords are different, you can send the password from your account to the email. It is best if you have different passwords for each site on the network.
- Use only common and trusted browsers to access social networking sites. Don’t forget to keep your operating system and browser up to date. The same goes for your firewall and antivirus – all of these precautions will help you improve your social media security.
- Never accept or install unknown files from people you don’t know. Don’t open suspicious messages that contain links to unknown resources, and never click on those links. Scammers can promise you anything, including pictures of naked celebrities, so don’t fall for their bait.
- Don’t install social networking apps that supposedly allow you to find a job, download music, videos, and other things if you are not sure about the security of these apps. Often they ask for your username and password from your account during installation – all these are tricks of hackers, who are trying to get access to your account.
- Try not to access your social media accounts from other people’s computers. Even if you trust that person, there may be a trojan on their computer that sends your account information to hackers.
- Be careful about posting information about yourself on social networks. Fraudsters often hack accounts with a “Forgot your password?” button that prompts you to answer a secret question. These questions are standard, and the answers may inadvertently be posted to your page by the user. Therefore, if the social network allows it, it is better to come up with your own, original secret question.
- Sometimes messages sent to you by friends may be from an intruder who has hacked into their accounts. So if a message seems suspicious to you or contains a suspicious link, contact your friend directly or by phone to make sure the message came from them.
- Don’t let social media scan your email address book to avoid revealing your friends’ addresses.
- Use your browser’s address bar or bookmark directly to access your social network. If you go to a social networking site through a random link from the Internet, you may end up on a detect fake app installs site that steals personal information.
- Keep an eye on who you add as your friends. Often scammers try to find out in this way the data that is available only to your friends.
- Try not to use social networking sites in your workplace. Social networking can be the source of viruses or spyware that can corrupt office equipment or lead to the loss of your company’s trade secrets.