Social media is a great tool for staying in touch with family and friends, self-promotion and staying informed of current events.
With the increase in social media usage, identity thieves and hackers can use information posted on social media to steal your personal information. This can pose a risk to your privacy and your online reputation.
Use these tips to stay safe on social media
- Review the default privacy settings of the social media platforms and customize them to control who can see what.
- Use a unique and strong password for each of your social media accounts. Check out these safe password practices to protect your online accounts.
- Set up security questions or enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) to secure your accounts.
- Think twice before accepting requests to connect online. If you don’t know the person, don’t accept their request. It could be a fake account.
- Look out for suspicious content on social media. If a friend or connection posts something that seems suspicious, their social media account may have been hacked.
- Do not click on unknown links or download attachments, as these could contain malicious links or lead to a spoofed website to steal your information.
- Be careful about what you share online. Don’t reveal sensitive personal information (such as your birthday, mailing address, phone number, email, mother’s maiden name, or social insurance number).
- Avoid joining online groups when you don’t know all of the members.
- Avoid posting when you travel. This lets potential criminals know that your home is vacant.
- Don’t post photos of inappropriate or illegal activities.