Social networks, here is the «checklist» to protect accounts

From home banking to social networks, passwords allow us to carry out numerous operations online but very often they may not be enough – on their own – to effectively protect us from the dangers of the network. In fact, from a recent survey conducted by Kaspersky of over 15,000 adult users and titled Consumer appetite versus action: The state of data privacy amid growing digital dependency, it appeared that the 31% of users worldwide have suffered an infection from malware on their device and, as a result, more than half – 53% – subsequently incurred costs.

Furthermore, 28% of the sample would have suffered attempts to hack their online accounts and, in 4 cases out of 10, these were the social media accounts.

In fact, not infrequently we receive e-mail messages or via WhatsApp announcing the delivery of very expensive prizes or inviting us to click on unknown links. However, it is good to be wary of these proposals as they are often fraudulent attempts that subsequently end with the request for our sensitive data, credentials or current account numbers to make us then find unpleasant surprises.

In this regard, the support pages of the most used social networks, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, provide us with some tips for securing our accounts and keep them away from unsafe activities.

For example, among the recommended as well as preliminary operations to be carried out as soon as we create an account, the activation of thetwo-factor authentication: a feature that in the process of login, in addition to the password, it will ask us to enter a special code usually automatically generated by an authentication app – like Google Authenticator – or delivered to our mobile number via SMS. Another good habit, moreover, is that of check the network of our contacts periodically, whether they are friends on Facebook or followers on Instagram, and disconnect from those we do not know enough: in this way, we will keep our posts, photos, information about the places we visit and other important data from prying eyes.

Among other things, of course, let’s remember never share our credentials! For example, there are numerous applications and services that to increase the number of interactions on our profile or provide us with statistics – for example users who have made Unfollow – they require credentials to access our profile: by providing them, we will allow them to access our private messages and even publish content – maybe spam – directly from our profile.

But the precautions to be taken into consideration to secure social profiles are not only these: take a look at the gallery to learn about the checklist con i 10 useful tips for securing accounts correctly!