During the past decade, social media networking has grown from a hobby to something of a necessity. Today, almost every internet user is actively present on at least one social media network. Whereas, most internet users easily manage multiple profiles on different networks. While social media provides tremendous benefits, especially for socializing people globally, it also poses great security threats to individuals.

Threats From Social Media

Although social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, and many others, provide a wonderful means of making new friends, you inadvertently make many enemies as well. Sometimes, you do not intentionally do any harm to anyone, but still, you remain exposed to the bad actors. Thus, your security while using social networking sites is threatened from many aspects.

Risks Posed By Fake Apps

Social media sites proudly offer various apps to users for engagement purposes. Most of these are third-party apps developed outside the platform’s environment. Thus, bad actors exploit this opportunity for targeting innocent users by deploying fake apps. These apps can be used for delivering malware, exfiltrating user data, and even for spying.

Profile Hacks

The most common threat while using social media is of profile hacks. Even bigger platforms like Facebook are prone to this threat. In 2018, Facebook suffered a massive cyber attack that resulted in 30 million accounts being hacked in a single campaign. Besides, many other small incidents of profile hacks also keep going on over these platforms.

Impersonation

Impersonation and identity theft are major cyber threats that are seamlessly facilitated by social media. Since the users happily share much of their information on these profiles, the hackers find it easier to extract the data for impersonation of identity theft.

Quick Tips To Security

By remembering and applying a few basic tips, you can greatly protect your social media accounts from various threats.

• Use an inclusive VPN to stay veiled from the bad actors. You can use any good VPN Twitter or Facebook that lets you access these sites even when they are blocked.
• Download and install a robust antimalware with thorough real-time web protection.
• Avoid sharing explicit personal details on social media. The less you share, the better.
• Be very cautious while accepting friend/connection requests from persons you don’t know.
• Avoid clicking on links shared in posts or via messages unless you receive them from trusted sources.