Social Media Shenanigans:Horrible Hacks

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remains one of my favourite movies. Winning that golden ticket and getting to see the chocolate factory? Pure joy. Well, when a cybercriminal looks at social media accounts, that’s what they see. A golden ticket to all your information. Almost on an hourly basis, we are eagerly spending time and money on social media mediums.

If you still harbor thoughts that the cybercriminal is a shadowy figure in a hoodie targeting big corporates and big brands, you might be right. But you are also a target. Think about all the personal and confidential information we unwittingly and trustingly put into our social media accounts. Is it any wonder that cybercriminals sped copious amounts of time working on compromising your accounts and getting their hands on your information? Do you use your mother’s maiden name as a security question but post about what her name was before she married your father? Do you let everyone know that you have always been owned a certain brand of motor vehicle then post about the colour and make of your first car? Think about hometowns, pet names, favourite family members, dates of birth of your kids and the name of the resort you honeymooned at. All information that we willingly put out into the cyberverse without thinking that this information could be used against you to compromise your social media accounts.

Once cybercriminals can login as you, all your information is theirs to do with as they please.

Here are some flags that you should look out for to give you a clue that all is not as it should be with your social media accounts:

• an email letting you know that you changed your login and you know you never did;

• you can’t seem to access your accounts even though you know you haven’t changed any login information;

• you see posts on your timeline that you know you didn’t make;

• an influx of advertisements on your accounts;

• you see or are told by a friend that there’s an account that uses your name and photo’s.

The first thing you should urgently do is change your password. I’m pretty sure like most people, you are tired of thinking of new passwords for every account that you open. You have probably used the same password for other accounts. Change those too. You can be certain that even a mediocre cybercriminal will use your email address and a known password on several different sites, especially a banking site, to see if they can login as you.

If you feel your account has been compromised, it’s best to follow these guidelines to try and stop any further compromise of your information:

1. Social media channels have their own support guidance on how to resolve a compromised account. Follow it to try to access your account again.

2. If you can change your password, do so immediately. Make it a strong password.

3. Change your login details for any other accounts where you may have used the same password.

4. Let your friends and followers know that you suspect you have been hacked.

5. Review your account details. Check if anything has changed e.g. your email address or phone number. Cybercriminals often changed these important details to enable them to change the account’s password.

6. Don’t use your social media account to log into another site or app as you end up sharing your personal information, which could make you susceptible.

7. Let the social media provider know that your account has been compromised and someone has unauthorized access.

My final thoughts on this would be:

- Do limit the personal information you share on any social media platform

- Do use different logins across different accounts

- Do regularly check your privacy settings and account information.