Information from your social media profiles can be used to piece together an understanding of your personal identity, which can be then used to initiate targeted cyber attacks.
Be aware before you share:
- Check your privacy settings on your profiles
- Think before sharing real-time photos, location settings etc
- Be careful with Facebook or LinkedIn connection requests from strangers or fake accounts attributed to high profile colleagues
- Be aware that there are increasing number of phishing attacks through social media, for example adverts of a RayBan sale on Instagram
Changing privacy settings for your social media
If you need more help for other social media accounts not listed in this article, please visit NCSC's social media safety guide.
You can read more about managing your content, community and account security here.
You can manage who sees your profile and LinkedIn activity, security settings and many more here.
You can manage who can view your story, your location, and who can contact you on Snapchat here.
You can protect and change privacy settings for your Tweets here.
You can manage your privacy settings for Instagram here.
You can manage basic privacy rights such as your past content, timeline, audience and many more here.
Enabling MFA for your social media
It is also important to securely write down backup/recovery codes for all accounts you turned MFA on. This will help you gain access into your account when the device you have the Authenticator app is not accessible or you just changed your phone number.
- Click 'Me' in the bottom-right corner of the screen
- Click the three dots on the top-right corner
- Click 'Security'
- Click '2-step verification'
- Choose either email or text message verification
- Select your profile and click on 'Settings'
- Under the account tab, select 'Two-Factor Authentication'
- Choose either the authentication app or your phone number
- Go to settings
- Click ‘Two-Factor Authentication’
- Choose ‘Text verification’ or ‘Authentication App’
- Click ‘More’ on the side menu
- Click ‘Settings and Privacy’
- Click on ‘Security and account access’ then click on ‘Security’
- Choose a method under ‘Two-factor authentication’
- Go to ‘Settings’ and ‘Security’
- Click ‘Two-factor authentication’
- Turn on ‘Authentication app’ or ‘Text message’
- Go to ‘Settings’ and ‘Password and Security’
- Click ‘Use two-factor authentication’
- There you can choose how you would like to verify yourself. If you already have the Authenticator app, you can choose the Authenticatior app