Protecting social media is very important on the Internet. Indeed, they are always targeted by hackers. Examples such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram often receive many security threats through phishing attacks, Trojans, keyloggers. But what can you do to improve your protection as much as possible? In this post, we tell you the steps you should take to protect your social networks from any intruder or cyberattack.
Nowadays, the vast majority of us use social networks to keep in touch with friends and family. Social media like Facebook or Instagram are the order of the day. However, they are also the target of cybercriminals to get hold of our profile and infect our contacts with malware. For this reason, it is essential to adequately protect our social networks. In addition to avoid putting ourselves at risk. We can even put all our contacts at risk. Indeed, they could damage and also infect their smartphones.
Steps to protect social media
If you want to prevent your social media accounts from being hacked, it is essential that you take certain measures. You must make sure you have everything in perfect condition. You should also take care of the security of both the account and the device you are going to use. Therefore, check these steps to avoid problems.
Use strong passwords
The first thing is to use passwords that are really secure. Avoid passwords that you can memorize. In fact, it’s a bad sign. You should never use your name, date of birth or anything similar that is easy to remember. Ideally, it should be completely random. That is, it should contain letters (both upper and lower case), numbers and other special symbols.
Also, you should not have the same password for a long time. It is best to change it from time to time. This way, you make sure you always have a reliable password. That is to say, that it has not been leaked or has any vulnerability. Although there is no specific date, we can say that if you change it once a month, it is better than once a year.
A good idea is to use a password manager. There are many, such as LastPass, KeePass, 1Password. However, beyond allowing you to store your passwords, many of them also have the function of generating very secure passwords. Some of them can also be configured to alert you when a certain period of time has passed. For example, it can be 4 or 6 months, and force you to change the password to make it totally secure again.
Enabling two-step authentication
But beyond the password, something very important to avoid intruders on social networks is to enable two-step authentication. It is an extra security barrier that will prevent you from having problems in case someone manages to find out the password. In order to get in, you would need a second step. That second step is usually a code that you receive by SMS. However, it could also be through a 2FA application. What you’re really doing is verifying that you’re the person responsible for that account and that it’s not an intrusion. This is something that is already present in social networks like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
Protect your devices
In addition, security must always be present on the devices you use to access social networks. This means that you should not access any website or social network if your smartphone is infected. It does not matter if you are going to enter from the computer or from the mobile. In fact, it is essential in all cases to have the system well protected. It is also good to install a good antivirus like Microsoft Defender on your Windows operating system. In the same way, you have to make sure you have updated your device to avoid vulnerabilities.
When logging in to social networks, always do so from a browser that is protected. Although you can also do it from the official application. Never log in from external links or programs other than the official ones. These programs should also be properly updated. Indeed, they may have some vulnerability and that could be a weak point that attackers can exploit.
Be careful where you log in
Another factor to consider is where you log in to your social networks. You should avoid public networks. For example, the Wi-Fi in an airport or shopping mall. In those places you never know who might be behind it or if the network is really reliable. Nor do we know if it has any vulnerabilities or any problems. It is better to use the 4G or 5G mobile network, rather than a Wi-Fi connection that is not secure.
However, you can always connect if you use a VPN that encrypts the connection. In this way, security is increased. In addition, there is no risk of your personal information being leaked on this type of public network. Some examples of VPNs are ExpressVPN or NordVPN. They are available for computers and also for mobile devices, both free and for a fee. As for VPN services that are totally free and work really well, here are a couple of examples. I am talking about Cloudflare with its WARP and the Google One VPN, two options to be taken into account. In the second case, you need to be a Google One subscriber to be able to access the VPN service. Otherwise, you will simply not have access.
As you can see, you can take into account these steps to protect your social networks. Use a good password, enable two-step authentication, have your devices protected. In addition to avoiding public networks, are some essential points to keep in mind. You can always detect intruders on social networks.
