What is social media security?

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Social media security refers to the set of practices designed to protect your account, personal information, and privacy on social media. These measures help ensure your safety against threats such as:

Piracy
Phishing
Malware
Data breach
Identity theft
The spread of false information
Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn can be used for communication, cambodia phone number data online sales, and customer service. Social media security is therefore crucial for both business and personal accounts .

Why is social media safety awareness so important?
Social media accounts are full of data, including personal information, customer data, banking details, and much more. Without proper social media security protocols, your accounts are unnecessarily exposed to numerous risks.

The Most Common Social Media Security Risks
Phishing and scams
Phishing is one of the most common threats on social media. Phishing attempts to trick you or your company's employees into sharing passwords, bank details, or other sensitive information.

Fake promotional offers are a common form of phishing. In these scams, fraudsters impersonate companies like Best Buy or Bed Bath and Beyond to offer you a discount coupon or free gift. Of course, you must provide your personal information to access this non-existent reward.

Variation: An internet user claims to have won the lottery and wants to share their winnings.

Free money on social media?

Online shopping and "investment" scams are also recurring problems on social media. The cost of losses reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in cases originating on social media increased from $237 million in 2020 to $1.4 billion in 2023.

Scammers looking to target Americans between the ages of 20 and 69 use social media as their primary means of contact. In fact, since 2023, social media has become the preferred method for scammers to reach people between the ages of 40 and 60.

Warn your parents and grandparents (and your superiors)!

Link between age and fraud loss: Consumer Sentinel Network chart
Source :Federal Trade Commission
Fake accounts
It's relatively easy for an imposter to create a social media account that appears to belong to your business. This is one reason why it's extremely important to have your accounts verified .

Fake accounts can target your customers, company employees, or job candidates, with the aim of tricking them into disclosing confidential information. Needless to say, these types of practices significantly damage a brand's reputation. Fake accounts can also defraud employees by asking them to provide their login credentials to company devices.

According to its latest Community Report , LinkedIn says it took action on 63 million fake accounts in the last six months of 2023. The majority of these accounts (90.5%) were automatically blocked upon registration. Interestingly, however, more than 232,400 fake accounts were only addressed after being reported by users of the platform.