The risks associated with corporate social media are growing rapidly as perpetrators become more sophisticated in their social engineering techniques. Even the most tech-savvy IT administrators can be fooled by these scams, making it essential for businesses to take steps to protect themselves. By following our guide, your business can ensure its social media accounts remain secure and your data is kept safe.
The drawbacks of business success
Success in business comes with drawbacks in the form of unwanted attention by cyber criminals. By exposing too much information about your business online, you increase the risk of being targeted. For example, potential attackers can make inferences about key employees, such as finance managers and try to target them imperceptibly or directly. The more clearly you reflect the structure of your business on social media, the easier it is for perpetrators to organize an attack.
Exercise caution with private messages and drafts.
Businesses should to be extra careful about storing sensitive information inside private messages and drafts. Sometimes information about partnerships with other companies and influencers or finanical dicussions are negotiated in direct messages, so it is important to be aware of the information shared during these conversations. In the event a businesses social media account is compromised, this information could fall into the hands of a cyber criminal as these messages tend to hang around long after the interaction has expired.
Train and monitor employees on social media
Lack of cybersecurity training, especially in regard to new hires poses a large risk to your business online. New hires may be unaware of your companies communication and identification policies luring them into traps, such as sharing sensitive data through a private message with someone they believe to be an IT admin at their company. Its critical to build an comprehensive training program or hire an outside resource to build upon internal security best practices to help employees properly respond in the event of an attack.
Additional best practices to keep your social media secure
In addition to the steps listed above, to fully harden your social media presence, companies should implement the following items as well:
- Set up two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication (2FA) is an important security measure that requires users to provide two pieces of information in order to access an account. This can be a combination of a password and a code sent to a user’s phone, or a code generated by an authentication app. By setting up 2FA, you can ensure that only authorized users can access your corporate social media accounts.
- Monitor user activity
It’s important to keep an eye on who is accessing your corporate social media accounts and what they’re doing. You can use tools such as Google Alerts to monitor for suspicious activity, or you can set up alerts for specific keywords or phrases.
- Use strong passwords
Weak passwords are one of the most common ways for hackers to gain access to corporate social media accounts. Make sure to use strong passwords that are at least 8 characters long and include a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
- Monitor third-party applications
Third-party applications can be a great way to extend the functionality of your corporate social media accounts, but they can also be a security risk. Make sure to monitor any third-party applications that are connected to your accounts and remove any that you don’t recognize or trust.
- Protect your email
Typcially the email linked with your social media accounts needs to be as secure as the accounts themselves. Often times an attacker will target your email address as it provides more widespread access upon compromise than going after a single set of credentials to one social media account. Futhermore, once access it gained, if the attacker controls your email they can prevent you from performing a password reset to reover your accounts.
Do you have more questions about securing your businesses social media? Contact Parsysco Cyber today or request a quote.