Modern businesses use social media to engage with their customers, market their products and services, and boost brand awareness. However, social media also exposes them to numerous cyberthreats.
In this guide, we’ll discuss the common social media threats that businesses face and provide tips on how to defend against these.
What is a social media threat?
A social media threat refers to any malicious activity that targets businesses through social media platforms. There are many types of social media threats, including:
Phishing
In a phishing scam, cybercriminals pose as a trusted entity or individual and send messages that trick victims into divulging sensitive information, such as login credentials, personal data, or credit card details. The message often has a link that takes victims to a spoofed website. When victims enter their personal information on the spoofed site, the cybercriminal can steal that data and use it for malicious purposes.
Fake accounts
Cybercriminals create fake social media profiles and pages to impersonate a business, which they can use to scam its customers. For example, a fake account might claim to be a customer service representative for a company and then ask for the customer's credit card information to "fix a problem" with their account.
Fake accounts can also be used to spread harmful rumors and misinformation about businesses. This can negatively impact a business's reputation and make it difficult for them to attract customers.
Account hacking
Account hacking happens when hackers gain unauthorized access to a company’s social media account. Once they have access to the account, they usually change the password right away to prevent the legitimate account holder from logging in. They could then post unauthorized messages or content, steal personal information, and request money from followers.
Malware
Malware is software designed to harm a computer system. Once installed on a computer, it can steal data, damage files, or even take control of the computer. Malware can be spread through social media through malicious links, attachments, or ads.
How can businesses defend against social media threats?
There are many steps you can take to proactively protect your company from social media threats.
Use strong passwords and multifactor authentication (MFA)
Create long, hard-to-crack, and unique passwords for every social media account you manage. Don’t use easily guessable information like birthdays or common words in your password.
Whenever available, enable MFA to add another layer of protection to your social media accounts. MFA requires a secondary verification step beyond just your password, making it significantly harder for unauthorized parties to gain access to your accounts and ensuring the safety of your sensitive information.
Read also: tay safe online: Tips for protecting yourself from cyberthreats
Limit who has access to your company’s social media accounts
Not everyone in your company needs access to your social media accounts. Give access only to employees who need it to do their jobs, such as social media managers, customer service representatives, and marketing staff. You can also use different levels of access to control what those employees can do. For example, you can give some employees only the ability to view posts, while others can create and delete posts.
Conduct social media security training
Train your employees on social media security. They should learn how to identify social media threats and how to respond properly when they encounter one. Make sure they also understand the company’s social media policy, which outlines the acceptable use of social media for employees and the consequences for violating the policy.
Implement an incident response plan
A social media security incident response plan outlines what to do in the event of a security breach on your social media accounts. It should include steps for notifying customers, investigating the breach, and recovering from it. By having an incident response plan in place, you can minimize the damage caused by a social media security breach.
You can turn to the security experts at Quicktech to create robust cybersecurity protection for your company’s social media and other online accounts. Book a FREE consultation with us today.