Social Media Security

Social Media Security
Social Media Security
Cyber Issues

Social Media websites are not only a great place to connect with old friends and family, keep in touch with acquaintances around the world, and discover new interests, but it’s also a great place to have your identity compromised.

With every new advancement or craze online comes a dozen or more different types of scams that were concocted to take advantage of other, unsuspecting victims.

A study by Statista.com of the social media scams conducted in 2014 found that 70% of the scams required the actual users to voluntarily share them in order to pass them on. SecurityIntelligence.com reports that 19.6% of all scam or phishing targets online are conducted on social networking websites, which is only second to phishing scams related to financial institutions. Furthermore, almost 22% of the phishing scams conducted on social networking sites are done on Facebook in particular.

Featured Social Media Security

Facebook Hacking Facebook Hacking From posting pictures of your trip to Spain to reviewing music, chatting with friends and buying shoes, Facebook has become an online community unto itself, enabling us to connect, explore and browse without ever leaving the site. When Facebook launched back in 2004, it was only accessible to a handful of college students, and the ...
Catfishing Catfishing From debit card theft to widespread data breaches, malicious activity abounds on the Internet. In the early days of email, a plea for help from a Nigerian prince wasn’t as easy to ignore as it is today. Most people know that giving out your personal information to anyone who asks is a sure-fire way to ...

Social networking sites may be fun and in the age where every life milestone, outing with friends and fancy dinner or cocktail is published and shared on social network sites for our friends to see and to like or retweet or pin or hashtag, it’s imperative to understand how our social media hobbies can turn into scams that compromise the accounts of everyone we’re connected to and our personal data.

The list of social media websites and scams grows every year, but the tactics remain similar. Take a look at the articles below about how you can protect yourself and detect scams on social media.

Fake Profile Pictures Fake Profile Pictures

Fake profile pictures are used all over the Internet in association with fake profiles is a way for cybercriminals and spammers to bait people into engaging with that account in order to gain access to their computer or their personal information. It's important to know how to recognize a fake profile from a legit one ...

YouTube Impersonation YouTube Impersonation

Over the course of its 11-year history as a video-watching phenomenon, YouTube has garnered about a billion users worldwide, most of whom use the site to look up music. Within such a large population of users are those who may become deceived by YouTube impersonation accounts, which are accounts created and designed to make people ...

Pinterest Impersonation Pinterest Impersonation

Pinterest's increased popularity has led to the rise of Pinterest impersonations, whereby people impersonate your account behaviors and pins, making your friends and followers believe that they are you and then lure them to click on virus-laden links that give cybercriminals access to their computers.

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Twitter Impersonation Twitter Impersonation

Twitter impersonations are a familiar problem on the social media site as reports indicate that between 5 and 10 percent of active Twitter accounts are actually fake. There are specific steps that a user can take to not only identify an impersonation account, but also to report and combat against it.

Snapchat Impersonation Snapchat Impersonation

Snapchat is a widely popular social media app that allows users to send pictures to their friends. Unfortunately, Snapchat's polarity has opened the door to certain cyber security issues such as users impersonating other users and taking advantage of people. This article will provide more information on Snapchat's policies and procedures for battling against impersonation ...

Copyright Protection Copyright Protection

Formal copyright protection is the best way to protect an original writing or work of art that you create and publish online, but there are easier ways to protect yourself and your creations that you should be aware of as well.

Spambots Spambots

Consumers should be wary of spambots, which are programs built to collect email addresses from the Internet to create lists that are used to send spam and to try to gain unauthorized access to computers.

Instagram Impersonating Instagram Impersonating

If you’re a millennial who owns a smartphone, then chances are that you’ve downloaded the Instagram app to take and share photos with the people in your life. About 20 percent of people who use the Internet also use Instagram – 90 percent of them are under age 35 – and it’s quickly become one ...