The fact that humans are innately gregarious creatures contributes to the allure of social media. It’s important to us to connect with one another, share, and talk. However, it is evident that these urges can occasionally take a bad turn in the remote and detached online environments that are characteristic of social media.
The cybersecurity risk that is introduced by the usage of social media is a significant problem that is often neither understood nor even recognized. This is a key concern with the use of social media. This risk is not simply there for individuals; as an employer, the actions of your employees on social media may pose a substantial threat to your firm.
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It is essential to possess an understanding of how hostile actors obtain information from social media sites about their personnel. This is particularly important when it comes to digital artifacts, relationships, and the aggregation of personally identifiable information across platforms.
Impact of Cybersecurity
The primary effects that cyber security has on various aspects of our lives are listed below:
1. The Information of Every Person Is Valuable
Your information will be viewable by anybody who has access to the internet after you have created a digital profile. Because of this, it is open to being harvested by actors with harmful intentions. People have a tendency to make repetitive use of the same photos, identities, and email addresses across a variety of platforms. Additionally, they use those email address for other, perhaps more sensitive, internet activities, such as online banking. Your level of vulnerability increases each time you post information about yourself on the internet.
It is astonishing how many people feel that their personal information that is stored online is safe from being targeted by malicious actors. They believe that because they are not wealthy, renowned, or in possession of a student bank account, nobody would be interested in what they have to offer. But thieves are interested in the money in your bank account, and your computer could be hacked and used as a resource to intend other people who are of interest to crooks. That means a criminal has some reason to be interested in every single person.
2. Excessive disclosure increases the likelihood of phishing by curators
Everyone has a buddy or acquaintance in their social network who is guilty of oversharing. This person is a virtual social butterfly with too many “friends” who are ready to offer a running comments on everything that they are doing, wherever they are going, and every personal problem they are having.
The vast majority are unaware of the fact that excessive information sharing of this kind puts a person in danger of being targeted by spear phishing and other forms of cyberattacks. Why? The more details an attacker is able to piece together about you, the greater the likelihood that they will be able to craft an email or text message that appears to be genuine and that you will interact with.
A regular over-sharer is at a high risk for phishing efforts, which then puts the firm in danger. This is something that potential employers should keep in mind when doing employee evaluations. And this segues well into the following point.
3. Unsavory Characters Have the Ability to Aggregate Data Across Forums
Not only is the material you share on your social media accounts a potential data point, but every piece of information that you post on those sites is also a potential data point. Memes and quizzes that you participate in can be used by malicious actors to obtain information about you. Responding to memes such as “Your secret agent name is your mother’s maiden name plus your favorite color” is a fairly innocent way to pass the time, and it can be rather entertaining.
What else comes to mind when you think about those answers? What about the security questions that websites require in order to retrieve lost passwords? What was your first pet, your first automobile, your favorite color, etc.? It has been demonstrated that some of these quizzes are developed by malicious actors in order to get access to your internet accounts.
If a bad actor has only one or two pieces of information about you, they are unlikely to pose a threat. However, if you become the subject of an attack, they will search for further information about you across all of your social profiles. Any content that is accessible to the general public has the potential to be useful. For instance, malicious actors can utilize the information at their disposal to try a Business Email Compromise attack if they have an easy time locating your company’s email address.
4. It Is Possible to Gain Information Through Personal Connections
Your relationships on social media present a risk in and of themselves, in addition to the content that you post and the content that others share with you. The issue involving Cambridge Analytica is a good illustration of this point. When you post something online and your friends like it, then comment on it or again share it, that relationship is now one that may be seen by the public if the post in question is accessible to the public.
There is still a risk involved even if your accounts are kept hidden. Your Facebook profile picture, for example, is visible to the public, and if you’ve just updated it, some of your connections will be able to provide feedback on the new version of your profile picture. CEO of Aura Hari Ravichandran founded his company after his own information was stolen online back in 2014.
An adversary can perform pattern analysis across connections, also known as life pattern analysis, even if you don’t provide information about your interests, location, or educational background. They are able to learn things about you based only on the relationships you have, regardless of whether you want to share that information with them or not. In point of fact, this is one of the most useful strategies that attackers employ.
5. Spread of False Information on Social Media Increases the Risk to Businesses
Disinformation and false information are being used as a weapon by those who would do harm. Malicious actors, for instance, could take advantage of a data breach incident that occurred recently by sending an email including phrases such as “Your account has been conciliate” or “You are- locked – out of your – account.” You may update your password by clicking here.
The decision-making process of the individual is exploited by these cyber criminals so that they can gain access to business computer systems, bank accounts, sensitive information, and other sensitive data.
6. Strong policies are required to provide social safety.
These days, being sociable is only one aspect of what social media is about. It has evolved into a must for conducting business, but at the same time, there is a risk that it could compromise security. Phishing scams and other forms of assaults based on social engineering have become more covert as a result of adaptions that attackers have made to their methodologies, which now allow them to collect relevant information about your personnel from social media.
It is critical that you have a robust social media policy in place of and that you strictly adhere to it. You should also think about monitoring the social media accounts of your staff members, in addition to your own company’s social presence. Taking such precautions will assist you in remaining ahead of cyber social risk.
