How secure are your social media accounts?
Have you - or someone you know - ever lost access to a social media account because a 3rd party managed to log in and shove you out? Reclaiming your access can be incredibly stressful and arduous with no guarantee it’ll even be successful. And if the odds aren’t in your favour, starting over from scratch will be your only option.
At the end of 2022, we updated the passwords across our social media accounts - and it’s on our to do list to do this on a regular basis. After all, the pain of losing your access far outweighs the pain of having to create new passwords every few months… We’ve put a lot of hard work into growing our digital communities - and we intend to carry on going!
As we rely on these platforms more and more to build our businesses, it's important to be aware of the potential risks that lurk around every corner. Here are 3 simple ways - and a calendar reminder - to keep your social media accounts secure:
Images shot & styled by Shout + Co. for ManukaRx
THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT YOUR PASSWORDS
If you think adding a capital letter at the beginning, or a “!” or “1” to the end of your old password is going to cut it - think again! Start afresh with a whole new phrase, and chuck in more than the minimum requirement of special characters. Don’t use the same password across multiple accounts, and don’t use predictable keywords like your pet, mom’s maiden name, your date of birth etc. This information is freely available on the internet and can be used against you. Then set a reminder in your calendar to update your passwords on a bi-annual or quarterly basis. Store your passwords in a safe place to refer back to when needed.
ENABLE TWO FACTOR AUTHENTICATION
A strong password should not be your only line of defence against hackers - two factor authentication is a brilliant stop gap. The number of times we’ve received notifications for suspicious activity have been too scary to count. But the hackers’ efforts have been hampered by our authentication requirements - and it’s made all the difference. It’s frustrating, I know, to have to input a password AND a randomly generated code sent to your phone or email - but remember: the pain of losing access to your account is worse than the pain of having to input 2 passwords… When we get one of these notifications, we change our passwords immediately just to be safe.
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Images shot & styled by Shout + Co. for ManukaRx
MONITOR YOUR ACCOUNTS
It's vital that you monitor your social media accounts regularly to ensure that they haven't been hacked or compromised, this includes checking your account activity and notifications, updating your privacy settings to make sure that your information is still secure. If you notice anything unusual, be sure to change your password immediately and contact the social media platform to report the issue.
Are your accounts secure? Let’s find out:
Do you struggle to remember when you last updated your passwords?
Do you use the same password over and over, slightly updating it with each iteration?
Do you use the same password for each social account you own?
Do you get irritated by two factor authentication so have opted not to use it on your accounts?
If you answered YES to any of the above questions, go back and make them NO by securing your accounts. Now.
Go do it. I’ll wait right here for you to get back…
….
There now, doesn’t that feel better to know your accounts are secure?
