Social media can, and probably does, play a key role in your business’s success, from B2B connections to marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, it can also open the door to potential dangers. Here are some social media security warnings and tips from your friends at Gravity Systems.

How Social Media’s Bad Guys Can Hurt You

Social media messages may include phishing attempts, links to fraudulent web pages, and malware applications. One prime example is a notorious network worm called Koobface. This worm can hook compromised computers into a peer-to-peer botnet that shares malware, ads, and other unwanted content. Even social media posts that don’t actually invade your employees’ computers can extract sensitive information from over-trusting respondents.

How to Educate Your Social Media Users

Instruct your organization’s social media users about the potential dangers posed by phishing attempts, malevolent accounts, and misleading links. Select the most security-savvy individuals on your team to serve as social media administrators (or add such personnel to your team if necessary), and give them a clear, detailed social media safe usage policy to enforce.

How to Secure Your Technology

Don’t leave social media password creation and management to your employees. Use a password manager that can generate complex, unique passwords for every account, on every channel. Ask our IT managed services team to recommend threat identification services that can scan and decode questionable links.

The occasional hacker may find a way past these surface-level preventative strategies. Take the time and effort to update your firewall and maximize your IT system’s anti-virus protection. Make certain that your data backup and restoration services are in good working order. The ability to recover your critical data can make all the difference in the wake of a ransomware attack or some other destructive security breach.

Need help securing your IT system? Talk to our Austin business IT support experts!