Published: July 30, 2021
If you’ve experienced a minor heart attack from a notification reading “An unknown user has attempted to sign into your account!”, you may be relieved to know you’re not alone. Considering hackers attack every 39 seconds, it’s likely that you or someone in your organization has had a run-in with social media security threats.
Utilizing our checklist
As is true with most security matters, it’s better to be proactive than reactive. We recommend staying up to date on common cyberattacks against businesses and using this social media security checklist to establish a line of defense. Though it’s not an all-encompassing list, setting aside 10 minutes of your day to run through it could save hours of hassle later.
Step 1: Perform an account audit
The first step in reviewing your security measures is determining who has access to account information. Over the years, your business has likely had people come and go who still have access to important passwords and information. We recommend auditing the number of people who currently have access, removing those who don’t need it and updating passwords when employees leave. Doing so will allow you to know where to look if your accounts are ever hacked.
Step 2: Set strong passwords
Like, really strong passwords. We can’t stress this point enough. If you are not including a combination of at least 10 letters, numbers and symbols you’re making it much easier for hackers to breach your account. Sure, remembering and entering additional characters in a password is tedious, but that’s kind of the point. It’s not supposed to be easy to gain unwarranted access to your account.
Step 3: Utilize a password management tool
Once you’ve set solid passwords, take advantage of password management tools such as LastPass to keep track of them. LastPass has a browser-extension plugin that stores a vault of your passwords on hand whenever you need them. Conveniently enough, since LastPass offers the luxury of a password generator, simply remembering your LastPass password will get you into all your accounts.
Step 4: Set up two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication (or 2fa) is a verification method that requires users to provide two types of information when signing into an account on a new device or browser. In addition to requesting something you know, 2fa asks for something you have such as a phone. Activating two-factor authentication is as simple as clicking a button in your account’s settings tab and following a few simple steps.
When setting up two-factor authentication on a shared account for your business, we recommend using an app such as Google Authenticator to allow multiple people on your team to login. The app is free to download and solves the issue of sharing access codes back and forth.
Step 5: Have a few friends in your corner
Even if you follow the procedures mentioned in the social media security checklist diligently, there’s still a risk for hiccups in your security protocols. Luckily for you, that’s where we come in. With years of social media experience under our belts, we’re always eager to help you prepare or provide solutions. Fill out our contact form and let’s chat!
By Envano
