Social media – a boon of digital technology that can connect you with people across the planet. And, all it takes is just furnishing some information about ourselves to get connected.
But, there is a flip side to all this. If you overshare information, someone with bad intentions may use this information to impersonate you to either reap benefits entitled to you or commit fraud or something worse.
In simple words, a hacker or cybercriminal may use social media as a vehicle to commit identity theft. As per a report, users of social media are 30 % more likely to become victims to identity fraud. This risk could go as high as 46 % according to the same report.
So, what are the things you can do to protect yourself from such cyber criminals and further prevent identity theft on social media?
How To Protect Your Social Media Accounts From Hackers
1. Choose Unique, Strong But Easy To Remember Passwords
Just like you, your password too, needs to be –
You mustcreate unique and strong passwords for all your social media accounts. But that does not imply that the passwords be hard to remember. You can easily figure out a way to create complex passwords but they’ll be so interesting that it won’t be hard for you to remember them.
For example – you can pick the first line of a recent goal or song that’s on your head. You can then interchange the vowels of this line with an underscore and start the first letter with capital. For example – if you are using Fitness is my passion as your base, then your password will be F_tn_ss _s my p_ss__n.
We highly recommend using a password manager for everything from creating a strong, unique, and easy password to sharing them with people who you trust.
2. Not Everything Has To Go Public
No matter what social media platform you are using – LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, or anything else. Make sure you tweak your privacy settings and make information private because not everything that you share needs to be there out in the public.
So, before you share the live location of your ultra-luxurious party, before tagging your location and compromising everyone’s security think for a second and then say.
3. Activate Two-Factor Authorization
Most social media platforms let you set up two-factor authorization at the time you sign up or at any time throughout you are using the platform. Now, here’s why it is recommended that you activate two-factor authorization – even in an event if a hacker can guess your username and password and logs in, he or she will have to go through an extra layer of security, something that only you (the actual user) should be able to bypass. This layer could either be a code sent to your phone, a security question you had set up earlier, or even your fingerprint.
4. Beware of Fake Profiles
It isn’t just you who can become a victim of identity theft. Even someone you know may have come on an evil eye’s radar and someone has created a fake profile for them.
So, once in a while check if there are any social media accounts with the same name as yours or your known’s. And, in case such profiles have been created without prior authorization and if their users are creating a nuisance, you have complete right to report them.
For example, if someone is impersonating your account on Instagram, you can follow the steps mentioned in this post published by Instagram itself.
Additionally, if you receive a friend request from an account with who you already are friends for a long time, you can always research or contact the user inperson to know if he or she has sent you a friend request with a new account.
5. Log Out Every Time You Are Done Using Your Social Media Account
Whether on a personal device or a public device, we highly urge you to log out from your social media account as soon as you are done. Especially on a public- Wi-Fi or on a device that is used by multiple users ensure that you do not use the remember credentials or equivalent option and as soon as you are done, make sure you log out your social media account from all devices.
6. Take Help of An Identity Protection Software
Adding an additional level of security to your PC can help you in the worst circumstances. Because let’s face it – Identity theft can catch you off guard when you are not expecting it. Imagine clicking on a malicious link on a social media platform and thereby unknowingly letting a hacker inside your computer.
Now the hacker is well aware of the fact that –
- You are a well to do professional who has several bank accounts, investments, credit cards whose details are saved on a computer
- Your PC is a doorway to emails that contain details like client information and other crucial details. A hacker could use these to snatch your clientele, benefit his own business or defame you
- Your PC even has details pertaining to your Social Security Number which can help you reap benefits or for that matter even take up loans, etc
Where Are These Identity Traces Stored?
The information mentioned above can be stored in the browser and Windows registry.
A theft protection tool like Advanced Identity Protector can protect confidential information like email accounts, passwords, credit card details, social security numbers, and other crucial and confidential details stored on your PC.
How To Prevent Identity Theft With Advanced Identity Protector?
Before we give you a glimpse of how Advanced Identity Protectors works to safeguard the crucial details and other personal information on your computer, do check out our post on how to keep personal information security intact with Advanced Identity Protector.
1. Download, run and install Advanced Identity Protector
2. Click on the Start Scan Now button to look for all identity traces and personal information on your computer. Since the results are displayed categorically, the further tasks become a cakewalk for you
3. You can move these traces into a secured vault and even remove those that are not needed
4. You can even set Scan Preferences based on Area and Type
Wrapping Up
If you are following the methods above you can easily thwart a hacker’s intention of conducting social media identity theft on your social media account. We’d urge you to not keep this goodness to yourself and spread the power to everyone you care for. For more such content, stay tuned and keep reading wethegeek.