Securing Your Social Media - For The Sake Of You And Others
Golden rule of social media, “Tweet others the way you want to be tweeted.”
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A friend had her Facebook account hacked last year. The hacker-scammer posted in accounting Facebook groups and messaged with some members of the groups (luckily not ours, The Workflow Wateringhole). The posts the hacker put in were compelling; they were “selling Taylor Swift tickets”, and because the poster posed as someone known and trustworthy, people responded, and sadly some paid for the “tickets”.
Once word got out, people felt compromised and rightly so, but for the wrong reasons. They felt that someone had been allowed into the private Facebook groups that should not be there. When, in fact, a hacked Account that is already a part of the group has access that Admins wouldn’t know they shouldn’t. The hacked friend immediately let the group Admins know it wasn’t her, and the account was removed from the groups.
There are a few lessons to be learned from this hacking.
Starting with “If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is”. Anyone with Taylor Swift tickets wouldn’t have needed to turn to accounting Facebook groups to get rid of them…
There are security lessons, of course. For both Admins of Facebook groups and for everyone with a Facebook account. The lessons cross to other social media platforms as well.
Personal security suggestions:
Implement 2FA
Lots of folks have let this one slide on socials - don’t be one of them…
Don’t use the same login email as your public-facing one
We have this policy for Calmwaters’ accounting apps as well; we have a different email for logins than any that are published on our website or used for communications
Not a big fan of birthdays - not in general, just on social media
Limit your geographical information
Where you are, where you reside…
Business security suggestions:
Create a company social media policy that includes strong password use (including using a password manager app), 2FA and other details
Have your team create a for-company-use social media account(s)
Don’t have them use their personal social media
It is better for brand identity, but also, if their personal account is hacked, it won’t impact your business - customers, community groups and stores
Administrators Security Suggestions:
Turn on keyword alerts
For The Workflow Wateringhole, we have lots of these to manage scams and keep the group cordial and upbeat
Hate, sell, expert, coach, consultant, Clickup (to manage all the “Clickup Experts”), a few apps that I don’t deem worthy for our members, tickets, sucks, vent, rant and some offensive language ones
This is the reason the Taylor Swift ticket hacker couldn’t post in our group
Turn on post-approval
We don’t do this, but my moderators and I are in our group at least a few times daily
This can become time-consuming and disengage members, but it is definitely a security suggestion to consider
Set up mandatory admission questions and rules
This won’t vet folks already in there, but it will reduce the baddies trying to get in
Decide whether a group is private, closed or public
This will secure the privacy of posters in the group and establish a trust and comfort level with the information they share
Private - a simple search can find private groups on the Facebook search bar
Unlike Public groups, these are shown with privacy, the number of members and Facebook group description
Only members can see who's in the group and what they post
Closed - non-members will not be able to see your group posts or the feed; the public, however, will be able to find your closed group if they search for it and can view the list of members in your group along
Public - anyone on or off Facebook can see who's in the group and what they post
Allow/disallow anonymous posters
It’s not my thing to allow this, but it does give comfort to people who want to ask a scary question or who may be an employee
Set tight spam settings
You will encounter a bit of navigational gymnastics to set up some of these settings, but it is worth the Googling to find out how to secure the groups in the manner best suited to their purpose vs their security needs.
Why should we be concerned about community groups being comprised?
I’m not just talking about Facebook; any group can be infiltrated by nefarious characters. There are many other community hangouts, including social media ones, chat groups like WhatsApp and iMessage and paid groups that may be in an app like Circle and Slack - so make sure your devices are secured as well.
What are some of the threats?
Account impersonation
Catfishing 🐈⬛🎣 me-owch
Hacking
Identity theft
Malware
Password theft
Phishing
Social engineering
I hadn’t heard of Catfishing, which is when someone creates a false identity to build a relationship with someone, usually to scam them into giving away money or information. This is basically what the hacker-scammer who took over my friend’s FB account was doing, but they tried to scam many folks.
Unlike Identity theft, which, although it seems similar, is where a criminal will literally collect and steal another person's real-life personal information.
With all this in mind, it is important to protect each other.
You are not in it alone! You are part of a communities, so be mindful of the trickle-down of lax security measures to the others in your world.
Securing your social media accounts is not just for your benefit; it’s for the benefit of everyone around you. Tight security allows you to feel comfortable joining all the fantastic groups that give so much joy to our lives, knowing you have done your darndest to safeguard others in them.
100% no judgment on anyone who hasn’t secured their socials as well as they could.
It’s a pain; we often think our accounts won’t be impacted. We also (or I didn’t in the beginning, anywho) don’t think of the fallout very thoroughly. So all we can do is learn from others and act upon them!
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