Which of the following is the most secure way to keep sensitive data privacy when using social networking sites or apps?

Lately, privacy concerns have increasingly gained a broader public and political debate. This is partly because of social media and the internet in light of the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Today, social media platforms such as Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, Linked In, and Snapchat have become internet user’s digital billboards.

Here, people share news, pictures, personal views, and nearly anything that’s going on in their lives.

The large amount of information that people share on social media – some of which is very personal –attracts other viewers outside of their trusted circle of relatives and friends.

Someone somewhere records much of what you do on your social media for reasons you may not know.

The government, Spambots, ad companies, vindictive acquaintances, and worse still cybercriminals could also have an interest in your personal information.

Knowing these privacy concerns, we identify ways to protect your privacy on social media in this article.

We believe that with the information in this article, you can take appropriate measures to protect your social media privacy.

Can you control your privacy on Social Media?

Conventional wisdom has continuously suggested that each individual is in charge of their social media privacy.

You only need to check some boxes, it is thought, to move your social media privacy from “weak” to “strong” and protect your online information.

In reality, it is hardly possible to control your social media privacy.

This is because even if you are doing everything possible to protect your privacy on social media, including deleting your account, your friends and relatives will still share your personal information.

Even getting rid of your social media apps may not be helpful in this case.

The evident lack of privacy on social media makes it important to protect your online privacy before you share anything on any social media platform.

How to Protect Your Privacy on Social Media

Here’re some tips to help you protect your privacy on social media:

1. Read and Understand the Privacy Terms

Every website on the internet has privacy terms, including social media sites.

Before signing into any social media and registering an account, it is important that you read and understand their privacy terms.

Pay particular attention to the privacy terms of the information you are registering and agreeing to share when you sign up for an account with a social media platform.

For instance, what content can be shared with the third party, can you delete your content on the website permanently.

2. Site Features

Ensure you familiarize yourself with the social media site’s functionality before you broadcast or share any messages.

Understand who will see your messages and whether they’ll be only specified recipients or all users on the platform.

Above all, understand the privacy settings and privacy vulnerabilities on the social media site.

3. Adjust your Privacy Settings

For every social media platform you are using, always check the default privacy settings on their site.

Most default privacy settings on social media may permit the sharing of your information with other third-party online users.

Adjusting the default privacy settings may limit the amount of information that the social media site can share with other users outside of your knowledge.

4. Biographical Information

To register an account with many social media platforms, you’ll be required to provide your biographical information such as full name, year of birth, age, or address.

Keep these pieces of information to yourself to limit what other social media users know about you. Such information can provide cybercriminals with enough data to cause you harm.

You may consider customizing the privacy settings on your media to minimize personal information on the same platform.

5. Account Information

Consider carefully the kind of personal detail you provide on your social media profile.

Never provide sensitive information such as nearest schools, political affiliation, bank account information, former or current workplace, Social Security numbers, or general interests, among others.

Providing this information may appear harmless, but it can be used to scam you or serve you unnecessary ads.

6. Friends or Contacts

You don’t have any obligation to accept a “friend or follow” request of anyone on social media, particularly those you do not know.

Be careful when accepting friends or following friends or contacts with a keen consideration of why you are using the site.

Before accepting any follow or friend request, research about the person, and understand (from their timeline) who they are, what they do, and what kind of content they share.

7. Turn Off Your Location

While adjusting your privacy settings, never forget to turn off your gadget’s location sharing.

This way, you’ll avoid giving reviews to places and businesses you frequently visit. Turning off your location prevents your Facebook, email, and Phone Lookup.

8. Be careful about posting photos online

Before you post any photos, think twice. Posting photos on social media has been identified as one of the risky social networking activities.

For instance, a simple, harmless picture of your child without a name may already be revealing too much information.

Advertising your whereabouts through pictures could make you, your loved ones, or your home a tempting target for cybercriminals.

9. Avoid Clickbait

No social media will take responsibility for third-party apps.

When prompted to ‘comment below to see magic’ or ‘check which celebrity you share a birthday with,’ avoid clicking these random baits.

They are third-party apps that try to capture and misuse your private information.

Security Tips for Privacy on Social Media

As with all web-based accounts, you need to counter the lack of privacy on social media by taking precautions to secure your privacy and account information. Here are a few security tips:

✅Choose a “strong,” secure password. ✅Use different passwords on all your different social media accounts. ✅Change your passwords frequently. ✅Avoid logging into public computers or using friends’ phones to log in to your social media accounts.

✅Use caution with public wireless connections when accessing your social media accounts. If possible, use a VPN.

✅Secure your devices with password protection to protect your social media and other information in case they are stolen or lost.

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Cybersecurity. It’s a term that’s been tossed around every so often. However, what’s NOT tossed around is the importance of having cybersecurity in your company.

Just like individuals, companies can get attacked by hackers, threatening the security of employee information, consumer information, digital assets, intellectual property (IP), etc.

With that said, how can a company prevent bad actors from hacking into databases and compromising personal and sensitive data?

In this article, we’ll show you 8 tips on educating your employees about cybersecurity, and putting your cybersecurity policies to work.

1. Understand Your Employees

First and foremost, don’t ever point the finger at your employees, unless you have solid reasons to believe that they might have compromised your company’s cyber security.

Most of the time, an unsuspecting employee might accidentally click on something on their business computer. Or, the breach might come from out of nowhere without anyone being at the computer.

Needless to say, cyber-attacks can come from anywhere and anyone. So, before you investigate your employees, it’s important to look at the evidence first.

2. Employee Training

Your employees look to you – management – for how your company should be run. Cybersecurity, therefore, should be one of the top priorities, when you train employees, especially new hires (which we will talk about later on in our “Onboarding” section in this article).

Since cybersecurity is vital to your company’s database, it’s important to demonstrate this need to your employees. Remember: Cyberattacks can happen anytime, anywhere.

There’s no way to predict the next attack. But with informed employees, your company can be ready for anything. So, make sure that you train your employees to spot cyberattack attempts and report anything suspicious online.

3. Practice Cybersecurity Awareness

The truth is, even management in a company can forget about cybersecurity every so often. That’s why it’s important to set an example for your employees by practicing cybersecurity awareness yourself.

One of the best ways to get your employees’ attention to the matter is through your email newsletter.

Every once in a while, – maybe monthly or bimonthly – you can send employees an informative email about the importance of practicing cybersecurity. In your newsletter, be sure to include the following:

• Organizing emails
• Reporting suspicious emails (i.e., links, attachments, etc.)
• The importance of updating apps, software, etc.
• Reminders on company guidelines, and so on.

Remember: When you, the manager, are aware of cyberattacks, so will your employees.

4. Executive Buy-In

Sometimes, cybersecurity takes more than word of mouth to reinforce the importance of having this kind of protection in the company.

In fact, investing in more cybersecurity can be beneficial to your company. This is considered an “executive buy-in.”

Panorama Consulting Group defines an executive buy-in as “go[ing] beyond approving the budget to pay for [a] project.” In other words, if you have enough in your company’s budget to upgrade to better cybersecurity, then don’t hesitate in investing in it.

Plus, in an executive buy-in, you’ll need to calculate the costs of assets should a cyberattack happen. In this way, you and your company will be more prepared financially whenever disaster strikes.

5. Practice Password Security

Passwords. Everyone creates and uses passwords for their devices, apps, accounts, and so on. Companies and the workplace are no strangers to password usage.

That’s why it’s important to educate your employees about creating strong passwords for their work and devices. In fact, here are some of the traits that passwords need in order for them to be professional and secure in the workplace:

• Passwords need to be long. At least eight characters in a password will work. But whatever you do, don’t let employees create short and easy-to-guess passwords for their work devices and or accounts.

• Multiple character sets in passwords are encouraged. Character sets include:
  • Uppercase characters
  • Lowercase characters
  • Numbers, AND
  • Symbols (!@#$%&)

Adding many of these characters can make your passwords more complex and harder to crack by hackers.

• No complete words. Again, passwords need to be hard to guess, and complex beyond comprehend.

• Passwords should be changed regularly. Using the same password repeatedly makes your account, app, etc. more vulnerable to hackings.

• Never share your passwords across accounts. Let’s face it: If someone guesses your password in one account, then they’ll use that knowledge against your other accounts that are associated with said password. It’s a chain reaction that you don’t want happening. Therefore, you’ll need different passwords for different accounts, so that hackers can’t get into your other accounts with just one password.

When you – management – follow these tips yourself, your employees are more likely to follow suit.

6. Educate Employees About Phishing And Other Cyberattacks

Phishing, unfortunately, happens all the time, when it comes to messages and emails.

In fact, it’s easy for hackers to spoof email addresses or sites to create what’s called a targeted “man-in-the-middle” attack – a phishing scheme that convinces the recipient to click a link or attachment, and then compromise the recipient’s computer.

Whether the recipient does this in error or intentionally, phishing, among other cyberattacks can happen without warning.

That’s why it’s important to train your employees to recognize phishing schemes whenever they use their business emails and or messaging apps.

It’s also important to show employees how these schemes are creating, and how to tell the difference between a legitimate email and a fraudulent email. Such tips include the following:

• Check the email format. If there are many typos and weird sentencings, then it’s most likely fraudulent.
• Inspect the sender email address. If it reads and sounds strange, then it’s most likely fraudulent.
• Check if the email asks for personal information (i.e., login credentials) or money.
• Examine the legitimacy of a link without clicking on it, hover over it. If the link looks strange, then it’s fraudulent.
• Scan any email attachments before opening them. Attachments are another way that hackers can infiltrate your computer or device.

Plus, hackers will use phone calls to get you or your employees to cough up personal information. For example, an attacker might pose as a vendor and call your company for help. They’ll even send you robocalls that will entice call recipients to react in a short time.

So, make sure that you and your employees use common sense by learning about phishing attempts.

7. Onboarding With Cyber Security

Cyber security should be a part of your company’s onboarding processes. When bringing on new hires, they should be educated on protecting themselves in the digital realm.

Since new employees will be learning new things once they’re hired, it’s important to talk to them about cyber security by giving them guidelines on how to stay safe on company computers.

Plus, it’s important to implore new hires to report suspicious content online, even if it’s a gut feeling that they have.

When talking to new hires, be sure to talk about the following:

• Appropriate software and apps to use
• Email etiquette
• Security software to acknowledge
• The penalties for failing to report cyberattacks, etc.

8. Regular Practice Attacks

Finally, drills are important to conduct in your company.

Here’s how it works: Like a fire drill, you can shut off your employees’ computers without warning, and then see how they react and what they’ll do in a situation like that.

Then, once the drill is over, you can educate your employees into remaining calm and reporting anything wrong with the computers.

Another example is by sending a fake email using an unrecognizable email address, and see how your employees will react to it. Whoever reports the email to you will have done the right thing.

By having regular practice cyberattacks in your company, you’ll be training your employees to spot attacks and to report them as soon as possible to management. This also makes your employees think quick on their feet, and do the right thing by reporting any attacks.

Even if they make mistakes here and there, they can learn from them and do better next time. Again, like a fire drill, employees need to be ready for anything, including cyberattacks.

Conclusion

As you can see, cyberattacks can happen when least expected. This is especially true for companies because they are just as vulnerable to cyberattacks as someone with a computer at home. When a cyberattack hits a company, the end results can cost time, money, assets, and so on.

So, just to recap, here are 8 ways to train your employees on cybersecurity:

• Understand that your employees can make mistakes.
• Beef up employee training.
• Practice cybersecurity awareness yourself.
• Consider executive buy-ins.
• Encourage your employees to create strong passwords.
• Talk about phishing schemes to employees.
• Talk about cybersecurity in your onboarding efforts. AND,
• Practice cyberattacks drills.

So, let all of this be a PSA for you and your company. By working to practice cybersecurity in your company, not only will you be informed on cyberattacks, but so will your employees. Remember: Training is key to preventing cyberattacks in your organization.

Author:

Emily Henry is a writer at Ukwritings and Academized. She is also a contributing writer for OXessays. As a content writer, she writes about cyber security, office etiquette, remote work trends, and workplace culture.