Protecting Your Social Networking Accounts

On the Internet, security and privacy are major concerns. You might have seen that Google+, Facebook and other social media accounts get hacked, but Twitter? Here are five effective ways to protect your Twitter account from being hacked.

1. Create unguessable passwords across all your social accounts. :  The more outlandish your password is, the harder it is for someone to break into your account. So keeping password same as your name, or as company name followed by 123 or any series is a terrible idea. While keeping password Think out of Box, keep your password combination of Lower / Upper case alphabets, Numbers and special characters. Use different password for all social networks. If you are using a single password all across then after once hackers get access into one account, they can seamlessly slide inside all your profiles if you use the same password.

If you can’t remember the different passwords? You can check out the Password-Management Apps like OneSafe(MAC), Universal Password Manager (Android), etc.

2. Monitor your third-party apps. Apps, add-ons and other similar pieces of software developed by third parties are often the marketplaces for information leakage. You might have approved many Apps to access any of your social media profiles. You might have allowed them to post on our behalf, we practically give them the license to rob our account. It can be hard to keep track of all the apps, but it’s important to stay on top of what external sites have access to your personal information and activity. To avoid this, use only reputable apps and keep authorizations at a minimum. You can also manage already approved Apps in Twitter by clicking on “Settings,” then “Apps”. You can also use apps like MyPermissions to manage the permissions you have given to 3rd party apps. You can read more at MyPermissions here.

3. Don’t click on links from people you don’t know. Have you received a DM or @mention that looks like this?

Don’t click. If you suspect the sender is a legitimate contact and you might be misreading their message, verify with them over email or text message before clicking on any links.

4. Be a Careful Mobile User: When we use the accounts with mobile, we risk even more. Most of us do not log out of accounts and we click the “Remember my Password” box. Using anti-malware, anti-spam and anti-virus software is must-do. There are several free ones available in Google Play.

5. Never forgot to Sign out when you’re done (especially on public devices): If you’re logged into Twitter – or any Social networking site – on a device that’s not exclusively yours, sign out before leaving. It’s also a good idea to utilize the Passlock functionality on your smartphone (Android, Nokia, iPhone). The goal is to make it as hard as possible for hackers to do their thing.

Do you have anything to add to our list?

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