Social media cyber security risks: Risks from the social sphere

Sharing information is the new normal thing for the generation Y. People who ignore best practices about social security, making easier to earn illegally by scammers. It’s even been described as the perfect hunting ground for illegal activity. Social media now has become the perfect tool to socially engineer their victims. When someone neglects their privacy settings or publicly posts personal notes and photos, they are giving cyber criminals free space to use their information and creating malware link.

1. Every posts, snaps, tweets leave clues about the users and how their organizations operate. Hackers’ data mine from social media accounts to gain insights about you and your company. There are third parties exposure that leads to the extraction of the inside knowledge that the hackers need.

2. Nowadays most websites allow URL shortened links and these links have the capability of taking users to a fake website or even trigger an automated download. Recently “ImgaeGate” which was a malicious file, speeded ransomware with an image uploaded on social media. The sites that were targeted were Facebook and Linkedin.

3. One of the more recent popular trends in the business world has been the brand impersonation. There are lots of fake accounts acting as the company’s customer service division. Which is online phishing. The illusion ends up in giving up customers personal details and credentials.

4. Hackers with political or socially motivated ends are often called hacktivists. The Panama Papers leak was an act of hacktivism as well as the infamous NSA leak. The trend is not slowing down and is expected to increase over the next few years. Online brands must be careful to avoid political landmines.

5. Many careless and frustrated employees vent their frustrations with their bosses and employees without thinking, which can create problems with company security. They may carelessly reveal sensitive information in their posts. They could also share pictures they took on company grounds, which could reveal more than they intended.

6. Providing too much information on Facebook profile helps hackers to guess the Facebook password. This is a serious enough problem. Hackers can use the password to access bank accounts and other online accounts.

7. According to Kaspersky Security Bulletin, there were over two million attempts to steal bank information in 2015 alone. Malware is particularly risky on social media: Osterman Research found that 18% of businesses were infected with malware through social media.

It is high time to foster a security-aware culture where employees have the knowledge and understanding of the potential risk in the social media. Most importantly not adding unknown people in the account and resisting the urge to click on suspicious links should be practiced more. Businesses need to take the leadership challenges to make a good social media security practice among employees. Socian is an AI-Based company founded in Bangladesh that has the ability to analyze the sentiment and deep learning technology. Socian can help businesses and governments in cybersecurity by analyzing the Big Data and providing a detailed researched report. Which enables to make a correct comprehensive business decision.