{"id":30813,"date":"2015-12-03T15:07:28","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T15:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandignitybeta.com\/demo\/brandlatest\/2015\/12\/03\/prevent-hacking-of-your-social-media-accounts\/"},"modified":"2015-12-03T15:07:28","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T15:07:28","slug":"prevent-hacking-of-your-social-media-accounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/brandignitybeta.com\/demo\/brandlatest\/prevent-hacking-of-your-social-media-accounts\/","title":{"rendered":"Prevent Hacking of your Social Media Accounts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Social<\/a><\/p>\n

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Most social media<\/a> users see social media as little more than a place where they can share stories, and a few laughs, with friends. Then marketers came along and saw the value in these large audiences.<\/p>\n

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Some of these marketers are honest people looking to expose their products to a relevant audience. Another group of these marketers are not so honest. They\u2019re hackers, and they\u2019re using the kind of \u2018marketing\u2019 techniques that people would call \u2018black hat.\u2019<\/p>\n

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I know that\u2019s a bit of an odd thought. Hacking is just called hacking. No one thinks of it as marketing. It\u2019s the same with email spam. It\u2019s a very low percentage form of hacking. This is why people want to steal social media accounts: To use them for the kind of underhanded \u2018marketing\u2019 tactics are appalling at best, and illegal at worst. This article was written to help you protect your social media accounts, and applies equally to branded and personal social media accounts.<\/p>\n

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Social media account hacking issues<\/h1>\n
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Stealing your identity<\/h3>\n

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This is a favorite \u2018hacking attack as marketing\u2019 tactic as it steals audiences. Your social media account has an audience of however many people – your friends and followers. Hackers steal your online identity and use it to push out their content. This is common with pornography and other questionable websites.<\/p>\n

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While clicks on this type of content are low, a low conversion rate to use marketing speak, it\u2019s not so low that hackers aren\u2019t using them. Your first line of defense against these includes:<\/p>\n

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  1. Strong passwords:<\/strong> Brute force attacks<\/a> are when a hacker uses a tool which allows them to guess many passwords over and over. They let the tool go to work until it finds the right password. If your password is a random collection of numbers, letters of upper and lower case, and symbols it will be nearly impossible for these tools to work.<\/li>\n
  2. Multiple emails:<\/strong> Every piece of information is valuable. If you use one email for every social media account, publish it frequently, and use it as your login everywhere you\u2019ve given away half of your protection. Use a private email address you don\u2019t give out as your login. And relax, you can have multiple emails and forward them all to one inbox.<\/li>\n
  3. Account recovery:<\/strong> Use the two factor authentication, and other password and account recovery tools, to help you get your account back. Two factor authentication involves a unique code being sent to your phone after you login through your password. It can prevent hacks from happening as the hacker will not have your phone (hopefully!) to get the unique code. Knowing your social media site\u2019s account recovery initiative is your fail safe.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    Assuming you\u2019re safe because…<\/h1>\n
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    This is a big problem online as so many people just assume that their social media accounts, and everything they do online, is automatically safe. Not even messages in \u2018Private Messages\u2019 are all that private. And I\u2019m not just talking about Facebook\u2019s reading of your messages for data<\/a>. One hack and that stalker of yours could find out EVERYTHING.<\/p>\n

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    To be safe, never post the following in a public post, or even a private message:<\/p>\n

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