In today’s world, it has become increasingly rare for anyone to be without some sort of social media account. While these tools have provided some incredible benefits and have helped individuals stay in touch with their family and friends, they are not without their dangers. Social media has led to an increase in cyber bullying, stalking, and can lead to reputational damage that can significantly impact your personal or professional life.
In this week's newsletter we will be going over some helpful tips to secure your social media accounts to avoid any unexpected risks or embarrassing situations.
General Best Practices
When it comes to Social Media here are the top 5 best practices that that can be applied to every platform.
1. Ignore random requests
From time to time you’ll receive requests from random users. If you accept a request, they’ll be able to see your existing information and what you have previously posted.
If you don’t recognize someone who is trying to add you, it is probably best to ignore them or deny their request.
2. Whenever possible use multifactor authentication
To make your account more secure you should always enable two-factor authentication (via phone app or text message) when it is available and sign up for instant alerts about unrecognized login attempts.
3. Use strong passwords
As always, we recommend using strong passwords that are unique to each social media account and that you refrain from sharing them. ICT strongly recommends passwords with over 12 characters, which contains three or more uncommon words. This could be selected from books, song lyrics, or phrases that you can easily remember and not have to write on a post-it or anywhere someone could easily steal it. For example: Sage,rosemary&thyme or 4Score&7yrsAgo.
4. Turn off Geo Location
Did you know that every time that you take a photo, it tags the geo location of where the photo was taken? This feature is turned on by default and anytime you share a photo someone would be able to download it and look at the metadata to determine where the photo was taken.
You can turn this off on Android by going into your Settings in your Camera App and disable "Location Tag"
On an iPhone this can be done by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and finding Camera. From there you can switch the toggle to “Off”.
5. THINK before you post… Does this need to be online?
Is it True? It is Helpful? Is it Inspiring? Is it Necessary? Is it Kind? If it is not, you may want to reconsider posting it.
There are a number of steps that you can take to make your Facebook account more secure by visiting the Security and Login section under Facebook Settings. Facebook allows you to setup two-factor authentication, see where you are logged in, and even encrypt notification emails from Facebook.
Each time you post on Facebook you are prompted about who can see your posts. You can also establish default settings in the Privacy settings on Facebook.
Through the Privacy Settings you can control the following:
- Edit who can view your future posts.
- You can also limit the audience of your past posts by electing to share them only with friends however, anyone tagged in the posts will still be able to view them.
- Who can send you friend requests and see your friends list.
- Who can look you up using your email address or phone number.
- If you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile.
In Twitter, there are a number of options that are available to you within the Privacy and Safety section of the Settings menu.
- Protect Your Tweets which will make all future tweets unavailable publicly. However, your previous tweets will still be available to the public.
- Control who can tag you in a photo.
- You can prevent your tweets from publishing your location, as well as delete any previous location details.
- Choose whether you allow users to locate you by either your phone number or email address. Typically, it is recommended to "opt out”.
- Choose who can send you direct messages and whether or not to send read receipts to users.
- You can deselect ad personalization, or whether Twitter can personalize content based on your apps. Remember to deselect “share data through select partnerships”.
In the application go to your profile settings at the bottom right corner. Then, click on the three horizontal lines at top right corner of the page. The Privacy settings are included in the general Settings.
From the Privacy menu you will be able to select a number of features that can make your account more private including:
- Account Privacy where you will be able to make your account private. If you change to private your followers will remain the same, and you’ll need to manually delete any followers you don’t want to view your account.
- Who is able to tag you in posts or stories.
- Adjust your Story Controls where you can determine who can see your stories, where they are shared, stored and whether or not people are able to re-share them.
Snapchat
Keep your snaps and stories “friends-only”: Snapchat sets your account option to friends-only by default. This is an excellent starting point to protecting your privacy. Friends-only means only friends that have added you back can see your Snaps or send you theirs.
Keep the setting this way. You know who is viewing your Snaps. If you set it to “Anyone”, well, anyone can see your Snaps and Stories. And that can easily go horribly wrong.
If you don’t want it permanent, don’t chat or snap it: Snapchat is built on the idea that your Snap is ephemeral. It is a tiny snippet of your life, captured, shared, and destroyed. Except for when it isn’t.
About Cyber Security Awareness Month:
Cyber Security Awareness Month is an initiative that began in the United States under the direction of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It is observed every October and offers an opportunity to reflect on the importance of online safety.
Each year there are weekly themes that address some of the top issues in cyber security, and Laurier’s ICT department participates by sharing the most relevant information with our faculty, staff, and students. Stay tuned for weekly posts throughout the month of October containing important tips on how you can protect yourself, your information, and Laurier, online.
Credits:
Created with images by Tumisu - "cyber security hacker security" • Merakist - "Social Media in Colorful Alphabets" • Marvin Meyer - "untitled image" • Austin Distel - "Facebook page of an entrepreneur's social media on desktop and mobile" • Luke Chesser - "Twitter for desktop" • Patrick Tomasso - "Iphone taking picture of graffiti" • Jack Harner - "ABQ Dragon Lights Festival Through Snapchat"