How to Protect Corporate Social Media Accounts From Being Hacked and Hacked?

Social networks are very popular, and hence have a significant impact on consumers. Social media users are an ever-growing group of recipients who spend their time browsing websites such as Facebook and Instagram. Marketing specialists know this - company accounts on social networks are already a common practice, used by most companies. Having such accounts ensures constant contact with customers, facilitates building mutual relationships, which in turn affects the positive image of the company. If you have a company profile on social media, however, you must remember about the resulting dangers. To help you secure your company's profile, we have prepared a number of tips to increase the security of your Facebook, Instagram, YouTube account, as well as your company's Allegro account.

Why Is It Worth Protecting Company Profiles on Social Networking Sites?

Hackers watch company profiles on social networks especially carefully, because the benefits of taking them over are much higher than in the case of individual accounts. It is worth remembering about it, using appropriate security measures against losing your account. Taking over your company profile can have much more serious consequences than in the case of private accounts.

Effects of Hacking Into a Social Account

Profiles on social networks are a real treasury of data about your company and its customers. The consequences of taking over your account can be dire. Leakage of data on employees and contractors may result in negative legal consequences for the company, including high financial penalties. If your account has several thousand fans, it is a particularly tasty morsel for a hacker. By hijacking an account, a burglar may steal data and share it with other companies, or use the trust you have built among customers to spread false content through your profile. It can also send your customers messages containing dangerous or false content - e.g. with information about the company's financial problems or phishing links, which in turn may lead to financial fraud burdening the company. Recovering your account can be quite difficult, and the hacker publishing false or vulgar content on your company's account can severely damage its image.

Curiosity The consequences of taking control over an account on a social networking platform were convinced by the Associated Press news agency. Hackers hijacked the agency's Twitter profile and then posted information about the White House explosions that left President Obama injured. The information was soon passed on by other agencies, despite the fact that the Associated Press quickly posted information about the break-in and the fake entry. However, the New York Stock Exchange managed to react - the Dow Jones index fell by as much as 143 points.

How to Secure a Corporate Facebook Account?

Facebook is currently the most popular social networking site - that's why creating a company's fan page on Facebook is most often the first step in the company's internet marketing. To increase the security of your corporate account on this portal, please pay attention to a few elements.

When you use your company's profile, pay attention to whether Facebook connects to your device using a secure protocol - HTTPS. Using HTTPS instead of HTTP means the connection between your computer and the server is encrypted. This makes sure that the data you receive is actually the data sent by the server.

Another hurdle you can prepare for a hacker is a difficult password. It should consist of at least 8 letters (upper and lower case), numbers, and special characters. Also, remember that the same password for several accounts is a bad idea - this way, you make it easier for cybercriminals to hijack multiple websites you use. It is a good idea to change the password regularly, e.g. every 30 days. If creating passwords is troublesome for you, use a password manager available in many antivirus programs, such as Protegent360.

Another way to secure your account is to use a two-factor login. To enable this option, enter the phone number in the settings on your profile, to which an additional code will be sent each time you log in. The account is then protected by both a password and the received - in the form of an SMS - code.

An alternative to a two-step login via SMS codes is to use an external authentication application, such as Google Authenticator or LastPass. Such an application can be used to generate codes that make it easier to confirm your identity when logging in on a new device. You can add an authenticator app from your account security settings.

Also, watch out for phishing, i.e. a method used by hackers to obtain data, e.g. passwords. To this end, hackers use e-mails or links redirecting to fake websites. Be careful not to click on links that have been placed on your board or sent to you in a private message without checking what they lead to. Also, beware of bogus e-mails that are allegedly sent by Facebook. Double-check the domain of the email sender (Facebook always uses facebookmail.com) and remember that even one letter makes a big difference.

Additional security is to enable notifications about unrecognized logins, which you can also do by changing the security and login settings on Facebook. If someone logs into your account from an unusual location, you will be informed about it via e-mail or SMS.

To keep your account secure, also control the number of applications that have access to information about you. To do this, select "Apps & Websites" from the menu. There you will see a list of applications that you can edit on the fly.

How to Secure a Corporate Instagram Account?

Instagram is another of the social channels owned by Facebook. Its popularity is still growing, and thus - the number of business accounts created on it is growing. What can you do to keep your company's Instagram account safe?

As with Facebook, remember to have a strong password. Change them regularly and do not save your password on the devices you use (unless you do it through your antivirus password manager).

Instagram also provides users with a two-factor authentication option that you can enable using the settings. If you log in on the device for the first time, Instagram will additionally ask you for a password, which you will receive via SMS. It is worth checking regularly that this option is definitely enabled.

When using Instagram, watch out for additional, theoretically cooperating applications. Do not leave your data in any of them and do not give them permission to use your account. This usually applies to apps that are supposed to help you get more followers by commenting and liking other accounts for you (bots that Instagram, by the way, is trying to fight). It is easiest to lose access to your account through such applications, so it is worth checking them regularly in the settings under the "Authorized Applications" tab.

Remember, stay alert! If you notice strange interactions on your account, such as unfollowing certain accounts, check all security measures again.

How to Secure Your Corporate Youtube Account?

More and more companies see the potential to promote their products or services with YouTube videos. When creating a new account or having an account there, also take a look at its security features.

It is a good practice to add a recovery phone number and a secondary email address to your Google Account. If you don't, someone who can find the answer to your security question gets access to your account. Keep an eye on the security and up-to-date data needed to recover your profile.

Also, make sure that the password you use is strong and remember to change it regularly. Never give out your password to third parties - also beware of phishing, e.g. in the form of fake e-mails allegedly sent by YouTube.

Google services, including YouTube, also have the option of using two-step account verification, which is definitely worth choosing. Thanks to it, even if someone knows your password, they won't be able to use it. Why? Because you will be asked for a code sent to the device assigned to your account (e.g. smartphone ) with which you want to confirm your next logins. Two-factor authentication can be set up in your Google account settings.

What Else is Worth Remembering When Using Corporate Social Media?

In all cases, you should also remember to change your passwords to access services and account recovery information whenever an employee leaves the company. You should also take care of security and constant updates of plugins on your website, enabling the transition from it to your company's profiles on social networks or joining the group of fans by your customers or recipients.

As you can see, there are quite a few options for the additional security of your company's social accounts. It is worth remembering about them, because of the bad streak of hacking and theft of accounts, unfortunately, does not end. Finally, one more piece of advice - remember to log out of your account on each website after you finish using them or before leaving your computer, so that it does not fall into the wrong hands - even a stupid joke of a colleague publishing a strange entry on your behalf may bounce on your reputation.