Employer Workplace Social Media Tips?

Some workers want to use Facebook, X, and Snapchat all of the time. But what should an employer do? Urban Schrott of Eset Ireland has some advice..

What is the impact of social media and the way it is used by businesses across the world?

Related Article: Social Media - To Share And NOT To Share?

Social media use has skyrocketed for businesses all over the world, with many companies using it as a way of strengthening their brands and reaching out to new and existing customers.

It’s clear that social media is likely to continue its popularity with businesses, although, in an age where information security has never been such a pressing issue, there are still questions that need to be addressed.

Is social media really a threat to security?

The threat posed to security by social media is nothing new. A report released by Cisco in 2013 claimed that mass audience sites, which include social media, pose a significant threat to information security.

One obvious threat is the potential for blurring the line separating personal information and company data, particularly when a user is using a social media account for both personal and work purposes.

This risk may be underestimated by workers, many of whom may believe their social media accounts are not carrying anything of interest for cyber-criminals, but they can still be used as a portal into a company’s wider network.

Related Article: Small Business Social Media Security Tips?

So is social media a weak spot?

Potentially. The use of phishing to compromise email accounts has been well documented, but they can take on a new dimension when combined with social media.

For example, if cyber-criminals can compromise a LinkedIn account, they can potentially fool others on the network into thinking they are genuinely one of their co-workers, opening up the possibility of handing over sensitive information.

But if they don’t get that far, there’s nothing to worry about?

Not exactly. Social media output is a key component of a brand’s overall image. If a cyber-criminal manages to compromise one of these channels, it could prove damaging.

For instance, in 2013, a hacker was able to gain access to the Twitter account of Burger King and then use it to display the McDonald’s logo, along with explicit obscenities. Similarly, it’s not exactly reassuring when someone like Mark Zuckerberg has his social networks compromised.

Related Article: Facebook Quizzie Phishing Scams?

What can be done to make things better?

Setting up a rigid policy to protect company accounts is always a good a start.

A code of conduct for employees, as part of a wider cybersecurity program, can include the implementation of strong passwords, with weak logins such as 123456 still all too common.

Other potential points include monitoring engagement with brand mentions, offering guidance on how to spot malicious software, implementing two-factor authentication and ensuring that only brand-approved content is shared.

Implementing a policy is particularly important for businesses operating more than one social media account, although it is equally important not to discourage employee participation, as this will hinder the benefits these platforms bring.

Related Article: Personal Brand Protection - 5 Easy Steps?

Is it the employer’s responsibility to safeguard social media security?

Employers should always try to educate their workforce on the potential dangers of social media as best they can, but employees themselves need to remain vigilant.

For example, it’s important to be cautious of links embedded in email messages, even if they appear to be from a social network provider. Always ensure links come from trusted sources. If in doubt, connect to the site’s URL directly by typing it into your browser.

Always keep track of what devices have access to your accounts, and utilize any available service that will notify you when a new login occurs.

Furthermore, workers shouldn’t risk leaving themselves vulnerable by posting potentially sensitive information on social media.

Guest Authored By Urban Schrott. Urban is an IT security and cybercrime analyst at ESET Ireland. For companies wary of social media in the workplace, ESET recommends its Cybersecurity Awareness Training.

Related Article: Social Media - To Share And NOT To Share?

"We live in a world of information overload, but don’t let that information overwhelm you.

Listen for everything – good and bad – and deal with each result strategically.."

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  Authored by:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

Defending Against Social Media Hacks?

Unfortunately, hacking has become all too commonplace. 

Almost daily, we read headlines about hackers breaking into banks, government institutions and sensitive databases containing troves of personal information..

Related Article: Feed The Social Media Trolls?

Your social media accounts and those of your clients are no exception. CNN, celebrities and even Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg last year have all had their social media accounts hijacked at some point for nefarious purposes.

Related Article: 7 Social Media Mistakes To Avoid?

Minimizing the issue can be broken down into three simple steps—detect, prevent and remedy.

Detect: Signs You've Been Hacked

Types of hacking can cover a wide spectrum, and some of it can be very subtle, so it’s critical to regularly check your social media account for the following red flags:

• Changes to your account’s profile or photos.
• Likes, favorites, follows, unfollows or friend requests that you didn’t perform or that seem targeted at content or people you wouldn’t normally engage with.
• Status updates or tweets that you didn’t personally post. Social media tools exist to track this behavior as a feed, which is worth doing.
• Any automated notifications from a social network relating to your account that you have not triggered should be investigated, especially if they relate to changes in your password or email address.
• Private messages sent out to your contact lists. This is easy to miss, so set yourself reminders to regularly check your social profile outbox.

Prevent: Minimizing Vulnerability

Narrowing your exposure to social media attacks can be encapsulated in four simple, preventative steps.

1. Make certain that you set a unique password for each social network, so that if someone manages to access one of your profiles, they won’t automatically have access to all of them.
2. While this is obvious, it’s often overlooked: Don’t share your passwords. Several tools are available that allow you to enter passwords and share access via a web interface, without actually sharing access to the passwords themselves, meaning that others can support your social efforts without compromising the actual passwords.
3. Do a thorough review of any account access you may have provided via third-party applications or social logins. Sometimes this access can fall into the wrong hands long after you have stopped using the particular app. By regularly culling old access rights, you can protect yourself from an influx of unwanted social media hijacking.

Related Article: The Top seven social media mistakes of 2017?

Remedy: Fixes After an Attempted Hack

Even if you’ve everything possible to prevent a hack of your social accounts, sometimes breaches will still happen. What then? First, take a deep breath and then follow these steps:

• Run a scan for viruses or malware on the computer you use to access your social profiles, and remove anything the scanner finds.
• Change your password immediately to limit further access. Make sure it is both significantly different from your previous ones, but also different from the passwords you use for other accounts. It is strongly recommended that you also change the password for any linked email addresses as an additional precaution. If the password in question is used on any other social networks and sites, you should change those passwords, too.
• Post on your social profile that your account has been hacked and that you were not responsible for changes or communications. If unwanted private or direct messages were sent as part of the hack, reach out to those contacts directly, where possible.
• If you had granted access to third-party apps, immediately revoke all access or, at the very least, review the access list and remove any you do not recognize or no longer use.
• Make sure your email address is still correct in the account settings. If not, revert it after changing your password. If you are unable to log in due to the email or username being changed, you will need to contact the social media platform’s support team in order to regain control of your account.

Remember, many brands big and small, celebrities, politicians and even your neighbors have been hacked before. Take a deep breath, don’t panic and set your sights on good preparation, and you can effectively minimize your exposure and damage.

Guest Authored By Blaise Grimes-Viort. Blaise is chief services officer at social media agency The Social Element. Follow Blaise on Twitter.

Related Article: Feed The Social Media Trolls?

Remember, many brands big and small, celebrities, politicians and even your neighbors have been hacked before.

Take a deep breath, don’t panic and set your sights on good preparation, and you can effectively minimize your exposure and damage..

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  Crafted by:Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

How To Secure YOUR Social Media Accounts?

Quick tip: Make your social media accounts more secure..

There have been stories recently about social media accounts being compromised or hacked, making your personal information more vulnerable than ever.

Related Article: How YOU Expose Yourself To Social Media Threats?

Jason Knowles and the I-Team tell you how you can beef up protection and security on your social media accounts.

You should always create unique strong passwords for each individual social media account.

But besides doing that, experts are also now saying you should unlink all of your social media accounts because that increase your risk of being a target and makes it easier for hackers.

Experts also say you should not link music and shopping apps to your social media.

They say you should also limit how much personal info you put on your social media profile all together.

Related Article: Protect YOUR Brand Against Pirates?

"They say you should also limit how much personal info you put on your social media profile all together.."

• 

  Post Crafted By:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at GetMoreHere.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO. where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

Protecting YOUR Social Media Privacy?

How to protect your privacy on social media..

Related Article: Social Media Posts YOU Should Share?

Ordinary consumers have been wilfully ignorant of ceding their personal data to social media, writes Martyn McLaughlin.

Over the past decade, the remarkable growth of social media from an outlet for cat-related memes, blurry holiday snaps and idle chatter to an all-powerful force reshaping the world around us has been driven by a single tacit agreement: we open up our lives to Big Tech, and in return enjoy the expediency and efficiency of its free platforms.

It is an unwritten contract that has prompted more than two billion people to sign up to Facebook and, in turn, allowed its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to become one of the richest men in the world.

The issue of how that extraordinary expansion was fueled has long concerned privacy activists, but the growing scandal surrounding the firm’s dealings with Cambridge Analytica has brought the issue firmly into the mainstream.

Related Article: Avoiding The Social Media Minefield?

It was assumed by most consumers that the price of their apparently benign deal with social media’s guardians was minimal, amounting to little more than targeted advertising; search on Google for a new pair of trousers, and your Facebook feed would be polluted with images of breeks afterwards. Irritating? Yes. Creepy? Undoubtedly. But we thought we understood what the algorithms were designed for, even if the design itself eluded us.

Yet the recent revelations about how the granularity of data, fused with immensely complex data science technologies, can exert a powerful influence not just over our shopping habits, but elections, is a game changer.

The answer for many is to withdraw altogether. Since the weekend, the #deletefacebook campaign has picked up momentum, with increasing numbers of consumers so appalled that they see no merit in trying to bolster their privacy. Some are even availing themselves of the opportunity to download all the information the firms holds about them, a process akin to lifting the plaster on a fresh cut.

Related Article: Lessons For YOUR Brand On Social Media?

One customer, Dylan McKay, found that between October 2016 and July last year, Facebook collated the metadata of every mobile call he had made, including the time and duration, with similar data held on every text message he sent or received. Another, Emma Kennedy, discovered Facebook had records of every number in her mobile phone, along with a list of every social event she had attended, details of all her friends and their birthdays, and a list of every text she had sent.

There has been a predictable outcry at how the company was able to harvest such intimate details, even though any number of Facebook applications and third-party apps inform users that this information will be gathered. Most people, however, tend not to heed the advisories, and they should be afforded a degree of sympathy.

Such end user license agreements are written in hopelessly convoluted legalese; when you are whiling away a coffee break with a Facebook quiz or game, who wants to read through reams of impenetrable terms and conditions?

Related Article: Being Smart On Social Media Refresher?

But that excuse only works up to a point. Our shock at the Facebook data misuse is largely borne out of willful ignorance. We have become accustomed to social media’s convenience and ubiquity, and our optimism surrounding new technology has gone hand in hand with an unfettered promiscuity. The bad news is that even if you delete your Facebook account, the data you have consented to share with third-party developers and affiliates will still be retained by them. You can scrub your digital slate, but you can’t wipe it clean.

In any case, social media is, for many of us, a professional necessity first and a personal pleasure second. We can only retreat so far. Instead, all of us should realise that our data is not an owner-less jumble of code floating in the ether; it is our personal property, and we should necessary steps to safeguard it.

In practical terms, this means installing tracker and ad blockers on browsers, and regularly reviewing and updating privacy settings; a dreary chore, for sure, just like filing away bills or cleaning the shower cubicle, but one that cannot be put off indefinitely. Even more importantly, however, is an attitudinal shift, one which acknowledges how the frippery and furniture of Facebook – those innocuous quizzes and games – are ultimately Trojan horses for data-capture mechanisms.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Reputation Mistakes?

If that all sounds laborious, help is on the horizon. In May, the General Data Protection Regulation, an EU privacy law restricting how personal information is collected and used, comes into force.

Firms and app providers must make explicit, and in succinct, plain language, what data they will scoop up and the purpose for doing so. It also gives consumers the right to see what information companies have gathered.

These measures are welcome, but they are no panacea. As long as the social media industry is able to regulate itself, offering only gestures at transparency, we need to get smarter.

As consumers, we take pride in the fact we make informed choices, whether that is checking reviews of electronics products before parting with our money, or scrutinizing the tariffs of energy firms.

Guest Authored By Martyn McLaughlin. Martyn is Senior Reporter, Columnist and Leader of The Scotsman and Scot on Sunday. Mark also does Investigative Radio & TV Documentaries. Follow Martyn on Twitter.

Related Article: Blockchain - The Next Social Media Revolution?

"Why should the social media industry remain immune from such vigilance?

We may be Facebook’s product, but we can determine how much of our lives we offer up for sale.." -MartynMcLaughlin

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  Post Crafted By:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

How YOU Expose Yourself To Social Media Threats?

4 ways you are unknowingly exposing yourself to threats on social media..

Social media has majorly been a force for good, but there is a dark side.

Related Article: The Exponential Growth Of Social Media?

Facebook announced in its third-quarter-2017 financial results that it now has 2.072 billion monthly users.

That’s more than 2 billion people actively engaging with the platform every month.

Not just Facebook, but social media is too big to ignore at this stage. Social media has also majorly been a force for good, but there is a dark side: cyberbullying and threats from mostly anonymous trolls hiding behind their computer screens.

In fact, it seems nobody is immune. Just recently, two-time Grammy Award winner Ed Sheeran was forced to quit Twitter due to threats, attacks and hate from trolls. Major celebrities including Adele, Stephen Fry and Zayn Malik have also had to take Twitter breaks due to threats on social media.

Related Article: Social Media - To Share And NOT To Share?

When it comes to social media, some facts should be known:

--More than 600,000 Facebook accounts are compromised every day.

--22 percent of social media users have fallen victim to security-related threats.

--Victims of cyberbullying, which occurs mostly on social media, are twice as likely to commit suicide than non-victims.

Even in the real world, you can’t stop threats completely. Social media is much more difficult to police, and it is getting bigger by the day.

Here are four ways you are unknowingly exposing yourself to threats on social media, though:

Flaunting Your Wealth And Luxuries

We all want to be the life of the party, but sometimes it is worth asking if it is worth the risk. A common trend now, especially among youths, is to flaunt their wealth and luxuries on social media. This can have serious consequences.

Related Article: Social Media And YOUR Legal Proceeding?

A notable example of someone who had to realize the consequences of flaunting wealth on social media the hard way is Kim Kardashian, who was robbed at gunpoint in Paris in October 2016. The robbers targeted Kardashian, and they went away with more than £9 million ($11.9 million) worth of jewelry. One of the items stolen was a £3.5 million ($4.63 million) ring that her husband recently gave her. Not surprisingly, though, Kardashian had flaunted the ring on Instagram prior to the attack.

When you flaunt fast cars, expensive diamonds and stacks of cash, don’t be surprised when thieves and robbers decide they want a taste of your wealth.

Carelessly Using Location Services

While one of the selling points of using location tracking in social media or services is the fact that they make things more accessible to you, very few people consider the risks. Ignoring the fact that some unscrupulous service providers can sell the data, it is worth noting that having social media sites publicly display your location can threaten your security.

Related Article: Social Media Predator Guide For Parents?

Depending on the aim of the person making the threat, location information can be used to track where you are, to stalk and monitor you, to find out political or religious information about you or to steal your identity.

Obviously, security agencies have been taking steps to ensure that users’ privacy is protected when they use services that log and display their location, but you can take additional steps for your security.

This could mean disabling any form of location logging if you don’t really need it, or selectively using virtual private networks to mask your real location when you don’t want your location revealed.

There are many reliable VPNs, and HotSpot Shield and Private Internet Access remain some of the most popular options.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Reputation Mistakes?

Your Usage Of Social Media Apps

Another very common way people unknowingly jeopardize their security on social media is by not paying attention to social media applications they use.

When you allow any and every app to have unnecessary access to your information, you are potentially jeopardizing your security.

There is no reason why a gaming app should be able to access your name, email address and mobile number and be able to message your friends.

If you want to install an app and you realize that it is asking for way more access than is necessary for it to function, be wary. Also avoid installing apps from sources not verified or from sources not directly from the social media site you want to use the app on.

Related Article: Social Media And The Real World For Parents?

Revealing Too Much Information

If you are not familiar with the term “social engineering,” it is worth doing some reading up on it. It basically involves people trying to manipulate you to reveal confidential information. They then use this information to access services and systems you would never have authorized them to access.

Social media makes it much easier to fall victim to social engineering attacks. This is because many social media users reveal so much information that the puzzle is almost connected before a hacker gets to work.

Research shows that as many as 75 percent of people expose their personal email addresses on social media, while 33 percent expose their personal mobile numbers. When you have your personal email address, your personal cell phone number, lots of personal photos and your friends list publicly viewable on social media, it becomes extremely easy to piece up information and gather data about you on social media.

Guest Authored By John Stevens. John is Founder and CEO of Hosting Facts.

Related Article: Protecting YOUR Social Media Reputation?

“More than 600,000 Facebook accounts are compromised every day.

22 percent of social media users have fallen victim to security-related threats.

Victims of cyberbullying, which occurs mostly on social media, are twice as likely to commit suicide than non-victims.."

• 

  Post Crafted By:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)