It’s Social Media Day! How are you celebrating? Re-posting your first profile picture from over a decade ago? Your most favorite status update or are you sharing the most proud photos? This year, consider remembering the day to learn more about how to keep your information safe Enjoy your favorite platform, but look for scams like social engineering
What is social engineering?
Social engineering is a cyber crime that is common on social media sites It is a strategy where a cyber criminal hides people on social media pages, collecting personal information which they use to disguise them elsewhere.
With more than half the world’s population on social media, you might think that a cyber criminal wouldn’t get you out of such a huge pool; However, it is possible.1 Fortunately, in order to keep your valuable personal information intact, you’ll need to make a few simple changes to your online habits: Personal. Check out these tips to make smarter decisions and be more confident about your and your family’s online safety
Why do cybercriminals care about social media?
Think of the types of posts you share with your dozens – even hundreds or thousands! – Followers: Updates about your life, where you live, work, or favorite travel destination, your hobbies, pets, family members, etc. All these details, which only you and those close to you should know, are a valuable product. To cyber criminals. Also, now that social media shopping is growing in popularity, credit card information linked to accounts is sweetening the deal for cybercriminals.
Here are a few social engineering scams that are common on social media.
Certificate stuffing
People usually create passwords based on things, places and important people. Have you ever published a 20 question-style post to let me know? Which contain a lot of value Personally identifiable information (PII). With these few details about your personal life, cybercriminals can assume your password is educated, a tactic called credential stuffing. If they are able to crack the code on one of your accounts, they will input that password and input login variations on several other sites, especially online banking portals, to see if they can access them as well.
Fake competition
You won! Send us your banking information and address, and you’ll receive a package in the mail or a direct deposit to your bank account!
But did you write a drawing for a prize? Rarely has anyone won something by following a particular page. If you receive a message like the one above, then perhaps a fisherman is trying to draw more PII and sensitive banking information from you. Or, the message may contain a link that redirects to an unreliable site. If you enter a regular social media contest, keep a list and only respond to legitimate ones. Also, never give out your banking information via social media, personal messages or emails.
Emotional messages and posts
There are lots of legitimate fundraisers and petitions circulating around social media; However, there are many social engineering scams that deceive social media users because they inspire a strong emotion in them. For example, there have been several scandals around Ukrainian donation site. Cybercriminals often use fear, anger or grief to motivate people to open their wallets and share confidential banking information.
How to protect yourself from social engineering
Fortunately, social engineers need some smart habits to keep them on track. Consider the following tips and make these small changes to your use of social media:
Edit your followers or friends list
At the moment, you probably have several social media accounts active for more than a decade. This means clearing your list of friends and followers. It’s best to accept requests from people you know personally and who really want to keep a loop about your life. Requests from a friend and follower from strangers can be cyber criminals in disguise. Also, consider setting your account to be private so that your posts are invisible to strangers.
Think slowly
Social engineering hacks often rely on people who work fast and fast because of intense emotions due to excitement, fear, sadness or anger. If you see a post on your newsfeed or get a direct message that gives you a solid window to respond and ask for a PII, slow down and think before you act. Double-check the destination of each link in the message with your cursor and preview the link at the bottom of your browser screen. Be careful, because some link previews contain slightly misspellings of legitimate websites. As a rule of thumb, you are automatically suspicious of direct messages from people you don’t know personally. And if a DM from a friend seems out of the ordinary, shoot them a text to make sure they’ve sent it. It could be that their social media accounts have been hacked and a criminal is spamming their followers.
Create strong, unique passwords or passphrase
A password manager will go a long way in making sure you have one Unique, strong passwords and passphrase For each account. Password reuse makes certificate stuffing impossible. McAfee True Key Saves all your logins and passwords and protects them with one of the most powerful encryption algorithms available. All you have to do is remember your master password. This is a great practice to enable multifactor authentication whenever a website offers it. This makes it incredibly difficult for a cyber criminal to access your online accounts with their educated guesses in your passwords.
Live online with more confidence and safely
Now that you know what to look for and the best ways to stay safe, you can feel more confident doing what you can to protect your online account and personal information. McAfee safety score It can also help you take control of your online security. This service allows you to monitor your current online security and encourage you to take specific steps to improve it. Now you can enjoy keeping in touch digitally with your friends with peace of mind!
1Smart Insights, “Global Social Media Statistics Research Summary 2022“
