Most social media sites are free to use, and unrestricted access gives way to corrupt users or false accounts. As there is rarely a process of verification of identity, it can feel difficult to stay safe on social media sites. However, with security settings and privacy controls, users are able to monitor who and what they interact with.

Oftentimes people are too personable on social media and overshare details of their private lives. This creates the threat of online criminal activity, as situations like stalking, identity theft or hacking can occur if you do not make use of the safety precautions on social media.

There is also an increased risk of phishing, as criminals can tailor phishing emails just by looking at your social media profiles. For instance, once they know your job and some of your connections on LinkedIn, they can craft phishing emails that include company details or manager’s names to make them sound more believable. By having access to your connections on social media, hackers have information to build up an idea of a company’s employees, to either target certain individuals or identify entry points into company databases.

In cases where attackers cannot directly access company data, nor manipulate employees via phishing emails or contaminated links, they may use social media to decipher suppliers and related companies to find a different entryway. This can be done via fake profiles which give hackers access to people’s information, enabling them to spread malware or malicious links. Hackers might also use fake business pages, or fabricated job offers, to lure people in and take their personal data or set up transactions which result in financial information being exchanged, or money being sent.

How to stay safe on social media

Staying safe on social media works differently for each platform: on Facebook, users can alter their privacy settings, making their posts viewable by ‘friends and family only’. You have control over who can see your page and even search for you, as well as the amount of access they have to your friend list, which can be changed to ‘only me’.

Similarly, Instagram allows you to monitor who follows you by setting your account to ‘private’ in your settings. There is also a block feature and ‘remove follower’ feature that means you can revoke users’ access to your page. Location services can also be turned on or off when necessary, so that it is difficult from criminals to locate you or gather information about where you live and work.

On Twitter, there is also the option to remove your location from your tweets. Twitter offers various privacy and security options that protect your account and allow you to be discreet with your personal information. You can manage your contact lists, remove pre-filled contacts and put your account on private so third-party users cannot access your tweets.

LinkedIn is a platform where users can obtain a lot of information about each other, but people are often less cautious, as the site is primarily used for professional networking. Updating where you work, your current projects and places like your education history can be a goldmine for hackers and scammers. As with the other social media platforms, your safety could always be compromised, so it is important to implement security measures to avoid that.

10 tips for staying safe

1. Never give financial information to anyone over social media.
2. Research job offers received via LinkedIn, especially if it seems too good to be true or is made up of generic messages or unaffiliated links.
3. Keep personal information private, such as your phone number and place of residence.
4. Limit details about your work history online.
5. Be cautious with who you are connecting with. A lot of people ‘over-friend’ on social media for the sake of networking, but adding strangers is not very safe.
6. Protect your passwords. In 2012, LinkedIn lost over 100 million users’ passwords and email addresses to the dark web. Many people use the same password for every site, so vary your passwords, make them a mix of both letters and numbers and try to vary them between different social media accounts.
7. Have a Master Key (a password storage application) to keep all your passwords secure and use ‘Last Pass’, an app that helps you keep track of your various passwords.
8. Set up security answers (this option is available on most social media sites).
9. Use two-factor authentication (a second barrier of security that verifies your password, for example, by sending a code to your phone number or email).
10. Use a single sign-on, such as OpenID, which enables you to manage all your social media accounts from one place.