Many people take to social media to meet log lost friends, keep in touch with family, or even reach new business customers. While social media can be a great place keep people up-to-date with how Fido is doing, it’s important to follow some best practices for safety while on the internet.
Keep your account secure
This includes not sharing your password with anyone, using long, unique, and complex passwords while using strong authentication methods like multifactor authentication (MFA)
Your information, and privacy, is valuable
While it might be fun to tell all of your followers where Fido is going while you’re taking an amazing vacation abroad, it’s important to think about what that data could be used for. As an example, a threat actor could use the information found online to guess passwords, figure out answers to security questions, or even know when you’re away from your house to break in and steal Fido’s precious toys.
Think about the settings
All social media applications and websites allow a certain level of control about what you’re sharing and what they have access to. Carefully think about these settings and understand what this could mean to you. For example, it makes sense to allow an application for sharing videos or pictures access to your camera if you are creating content, but does that application or website need access to your contacts in order to create that content? Does it need access to your location? These are a few of the many settings that should be reviewed in all of your applications. It also makes sure to review the options available to you on a regular basis. Sometimes they introduce new settings you may want to tweak.
If it’s online, it will always be online
Remember that once something is posted online, it is out of your control and may always be available. Even if an application or website states they will delete your information after a given time, it doesn’t mean that someone else didn’t capture it. That even goes for applications or sites that try to prevent that from happening. Someone could take a screenshot or video of their device while they’re viewing your post and use it however they want in the future.
Know your audience
It’s one thing to share information with a trusted friend, but if your security settings allow anyone to view your social media, should that same information still be shared? Even if you are a social media influencer, you still may want to keep some things private.
Block the unwanted
Cyberbullying is a real thing and there are people who don’t mean well. It is ok to block people as well as reporting malicious activity. All platforms should have a method to block and report people and there’s no shame in reporting them if need be.