rahul1117kumar
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It’s no secret that with increasing popularity of social media, the risks that come along with it are also increasing. In other words the necessity to be careful about online security has increased as well. Recently, Google CEO
Sundar Pichai ’s Quora account was broken into by a team of hackers called OurMine. The same hackers had last month hacked into Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest account.
Now, if these tech entrepreneurs are vulnerable to hacking, it is safe to say that you too are equally (if not more) vulnerable to a security breach. However, there are various preventive steps you can take to make your social media accounts a lot more secure. Talking about Twitter, here are five tips you should keep in mind to make your account less vulnerable to attacks.
Privacy and Security settings
It is absolutely necessary to take all preventive measures at your end first. Many users may not know, but there is way to make your Twitter private. To do that, Go to the Security and Privacy option in settings, and choose ‘Protect my Tweets’. This will prompt you for permission every time someone tries to follow you, so it will be subject to your approval.
Personal details is a no-no
Adding personal details like contact number or any other information that is ripe for harvest by spam bots or any online criminal should be avoided as far as possible.
Disable location
Twitter allows you to add location to each tweet that you post. Now, think about it, when you have your location service enabled at all times, it’s like you have a beeper collar around you, and you are inviting someone to track you. This comes with not just online but personal safety and security threat as well. Therefore, only enable location services when absolutely necessary.
Along with that, make sure you strip the Geotag information from the photos you post on Twitter. Many phones add location information to the metadata of a media file. In turn, anyone with an EXIF viewer app can view your location details, and therefore, make it a point to strip off the Geotag info. There are various apps available online which will easily enable you to do that, for instance, Photo Investigator for iOS, and Pixelgrade on both iOS and Android.
Unsync third-party apps
Like other social media platforms, Twitter also lets you sync different accounts with it, so that you can directly post tweets from other app. Although it seems quite convenient, this may not be the best idea. Going back to Sundar Pichai’s case, this team of hackers broke into his Quora account, and since he had linked his Quora to his Twitter account, they got a free access to that as well. So unsync as many third-party apps as possible from your Twitter account.
Enable login verification
Even after taking all preventive steps for account safety, your password is still vulnerable, but worry not, login verification has your back. Twitter’s two-step verification should be the first thing you enable right away, if you haven’t already. To do that, on the Password page in Settings, choose, ‘Send login verification request to my phone’, and then ‘Okay, send message’. This will send you a verification code via SMS every time you login to Twitter.
5 tips to keep your Twitter account secure | Latest Tech News, Video & Photo Reviews at BGR India
Sundar Pichai ’s Quora account was broken into by a team of hackers called OurMine. The same hackers had last month hacked into Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest account.
Now, if these tech entrepreneurs are vulnerable to hacking, it is safe to say that you too are equally (if not more) vulnerable to a security breach. However, there are various preventive steps you can take to make your social media accounts a lot more secure. Talking about Twitter, here are five tips you should keep in mind to make your account less vulnerable to attacks.
Privacy and Security settings
It is absolutely necessary to take all preventive measures at your end first. Many users may not know, but there is way to make your Twitter private. To do that, Go to the Security and Privacy option in settings, and choose ‘Protect my Tweets’. This will prompt you for permission every time someone tries to follow you, so it will be subject to your approval.
Personal details is a no-no
Adding personal details like contact number or any other information that is ripe for harvest by spam bots or any online criminal should be avoided as far as possible.
Disable location
Twitter allows you to add location to each tweet that you post. Now, think about it, when you have your location service enabled at all times, it’s like you have a beeper collar around you, and you are inviting someone to track you. This comes with not just online but personal safety and security threat as well. Therefore, only enable location services when absolutely necessary.
Along with that, make sure you strip the Geotag information from the photos you post on Twitter. Many phones add location information to the metadata of a media file. In turn, anyone with an EXIF viewer app can view your location details, and therefore, make it a point to strip off the Geotag info. There are various apps available online which will easily enable you to do that, for instance, Photo Investigator for iOS, and Pixelgrade on both iOS and Android.
Unsync third-party apps
Like other social media platforms, Twitter also lets you sync different accounts with it, so that you can directly post tweets from other app. Although it seems quite convenient, this may not be the best idea. Going back to Sundar Pichai’s case, this team of hackers broke into his Quora account, and since he had linked his Quora to his Twitter account, they got a free access to that as well. So unsync as many third-party apps as possible from your Twitter account.
Enable login verification
Even after taking all preventive steps for account safety, your password is still vulnerable, but worry not, login verification has your back. Twitter’s two-step verification should be the first thing you enable right away, if you haven’t already. To do that, on the Password page in Settings, choose, ‘Send login verification request to my phone’, and then ‘Okay, send message’. This will send you a verification code via SMS every time you login to Twitter.
5 tips to keep your Twitter account secure | Latest Tech News, Video & Photo Reviews at BGR India
