At this point all over the world, safety is not a word to joke around with or ignore. Safety as it concerns your health, your wealth (or what little you have as per you’re humble like a typical Nigerian, lol!) and one more – with your social media accounts. Social media account here refers to all your social media channels from WhatsApp to Twitter to Instagram to Snapchat and every other channel or platform you use daily or frequently. This information is not just for a particular set of people, hackers do not understand your age or the number of followers you have.
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Hacking has been a major concern in recent times from social media users as cybercriminals hijack accounts with a certain number of followers or use accounts to extort money from family and friends through private messages in DMs or to extract personal data from social media sites. They have attacked both social media celebrity and the lowkey social media introvert
Because cybercriminals can illegally turn accounts to cash, monetize valuable information and resort to extortion or blackmail, the need for the two-factor authentication has never been more important than today. The two-factor authentication is an extra layer of security for social media users, this ensures that instead of logging in to your social media accounts with a password alone, you will need to enter a code or enter a security key to access your account. After you enable this feature, you will need your password, along with a secondary login method –– either a code, a login confirmation via an app or a physical security key to log in to your account.
Here are what you need to know:
- You expose yourself to more risk when you don’t use apps gotten from the official app stores (Google play store and Apple play store), enter personal data on suspicious sites, and allow third-party services requesting access through account login credentials.
- You will know your account has been hacked when you’re locked out of your account, that is, your password is changed and you cannot access your page. You may get notified of this by email if you did account verification
- If at any point your account has been hacked, then immediately make sure that the account will be blocked before steps are taken to reverse the action.
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Activate the two-factor authentication on Instagram here.
Activate the two-factor authentication on Twitter here.
Don’t be like the foolish man who did not build a strong foundation for his house and when the wind came and the storms came, it collapsed.
On the flip side, my last word today is about necessary risk and not foolish one by Judith McNaught:
“You can’t outwit fate by trying to stand on the sidelines and place little side bets about the outcome of life. Either you wade in and risk everything to play the game, or you don’t play at all. And if you don’t play, you can’t win.”
– Judith McNaught
Featured Image Source: Malwarebytes
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