{"id":7756,"date":"2017-01-18T08:51:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T08:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.centsys.co.za\/social-media-and-security-what-are-the-risks\/"},"modified":"2017-01-18T08:51:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T08:51:00","slug":"social-media-and-security-what-are-the-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.centsys.com\/fr\/social-media-and-security-what-are-the-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media and Security: What are the Risks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Social networking sites such as Facebook<\/b> and its great granddaddy MySpace <\/b>have created a veritable microcosm of peer-to-peer interactions, marketing and entertainment. What started out as a simple means for people to reconnect with school friends and faraway family members has to some extent spawned an entirely new reality that is, in many respects, a far cry from the pre-social media days.<\/p>\n

This dramatic shift in our experience of social reality can be seen as an important part of the ongoing process of globalisation,<\/b> the wave of digital \u201coneness\u201d sweeping the globe and leaving blurred \u2013 or even completely erased \u2013 cultural, socio-political and geographical lines in its wake.<\/p>\n

But where has this Brave New World left us from a personal security perspective?<\/b> What new challenges has the Information Age<\/b> wrought, and what can we do to better safeguard ourselves and our loved ones against this new generation of tech-savvy criminals?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t share your password<\/b><\/p>\n

As we mentioned earlier, social media has created a completely new world and, to all intents and purposes, your password is your key into that world. You wouldn\u2019t go around lending out the key to your home all willy-nilly, and your social media accounts\u2019 passwords should be treated with equal care and respect.<\/p>\n

Letting your password land up in the wrong hands can be absolutely ruinous; from having your online reputation<\/b> tarnished to falling victim to fraud, ensure that the fidelity of your social media passwords remains intact. \u00a0Cyber-security experts also recommend using a phrase<\/b> rather than a single word or thought as your social media password.<\/p>\n

Understand Facebook\u2019s security settings<\/b><\/p>\n

Those settings exist for a reason, and it\u2019s important that you and your family members are completely au fait <\/i>with them.<\/p>\n

To access and configure Facebook\u2019s security settings, click on the little down arrow next to the lock icon, which can be found in the top right-hand corner of your screen:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

This will produce a drop-down menu. Click on Settings<\/i>:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

You\u2019ll now be taken to Facebook\u2019s General Settings<\/i> menu, with more options on the right-hand side. Click on Security<\/i>:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

From this screen, you\u2019ll be able to edit your security preferences and create a more secure social media environment.<\/p>\n

If you have kids, know what they\u2019re getting up to online<\/b><\/p>\n

For all its benefits, social media has sadly also become a rich hunting ground for predators who exploit the relative anonymity of cyberspace for their own nefarious purposes. We are not advocating spying on your kids, but we certainly encourage sitting down with them and having an open discussion about the dangers of social media. The more you educate them, the more you\u2019ll be able to allay your own feelings regarding these platforms. Empower your children to be better, more security-conscious social media users.<\/p>\n

Be wary of advertising your absence from home<\/b><\/p>\n

Though I have not yet been able to establish the validity of this report, there have been rumours doing the rounds regarding insurance firms overseas not paying out claims when it was discovered that the claimant had posted about his or her holiday on social media. While these claims have, in all likelihood, been greatly exaggerated, it is certainly wise not to be too specific about the dates during which one intends to be out of town. Social media wouldn\u2019t be social media without holidaymakers showing off their idyllic lifestyles, but we recommend that users avoid posting specifics<\/b> that could leave things back home vulnerable.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t publish your home address<\/b><\/p>\n

This one may seem patently obvious, but you don\u2019t want strangers knowing where you live.<\/p>\n

Use a secure protocol when accessing social media sites<\/b><\/p>\n

You may know the \u201chttps<\/b>\u201d prefix from accessing your online banking profile, but chances are you haven\u2019t given much thought to what it means. The \u201cs\u201d, as you\u2019ve probably guessed by now, stands for \u201csecure<\/b>\u201d and the presence of this protocol essentially means that the website you are visiting has been given an extra security layer to help safeguard against malicious online behaviour such as phishing.<\/p>\n

The security protocol ensures that communication over the website is encrypted and that private information is kept, well, private. The majority of social media sites natively encrypt communication but, if you don\u2019t see \u201chttps\u201d in front of the URL, you can (and should) manually enter it.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

Not all \u201cfriends\u201d are friendly<\/b><\/p>\n

We all receive friend requests every now and again from people we don\u2019t know and, in the majority of cases, it\u2019s a completely harmless gesture. Someone spots your profile under \u201cPeople you may know\u201d and decides to add you. No harm, no foul.<\/p>\n

But, just like in the corporeal world, there are those individuals who have intentions far more diabolic than merely \u201cliking\u201d pictures of your cat.<\/p>\n

According to the National Cyber Security Alliance<\/b>\u2019s Stay Safe Online<\/a> website, just because it\u2019s fun to create a large pool of friends \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean that all friends are created equal\u201d.<\/p>\n

The website recommends \u201c[using] tools to manage the information you share with friends in different groups or even [having] multiple page. If you\u2019re trying to create a public persona as a blogger or expert, create an open profile or \u2018fan\u2019 page that encourages broad participation and limits personal information\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social networking sites such as Facebook and its great granddaddy MySpace have created a veritable microcosm of peer-to-peer interactions, marketing and entertainment. What started out as a simple means for people to reconnect with school friends and faraway family members has to some extent spawned an entirely new reality that is, in many respects, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,172,178,206,218,222,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-centurion-systems","category-online-security","category-personal-security","category-security","category-social-media","category-stay-safe-online","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\r\nSocial Media and Security: What are the Risks? - Centurion Systems French<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Where has this Brave New World left us from a personal security perspective? 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