Security News

While the context of my article involved recreational social media, it's just as critical to protect yourself on business social media such as LinkedIn. Adrien Gendre, chief product officer at Vade, a cybersecurity company, said, "The risk of oversharing on social media lies not only in what you share publicly, but also what you share with the platforms privately. For example, when setting up a social media account, you might include your birthdate, which helps hackers since many people include their date of birth in their passwords."

Social media has become an integral part of modern communications, providing valuable information to businesses and individuals. Social media platforms deliver a lot of helpful, actionable information for both professional and personal use.

One solution to the friction conundrum that has been introduced in recent years comes in the form of social media background checks. As a simple case in point, an email address that was created very recently and is not associated with any social media profiles is more likely to be linked to attempted fraud, so the user's private and payment information ought to be checked more carefully, including potentially asking them for pictures or biometric data.

Phishing remains the dominant attack vector for bad actors, growing 31.5 percent over 2020, according to a PhishLabs report. Notably, attacks in September 2021 were more than twice as high as the previous year.

The Ministry of Defence has published a data strategy that calls on the British armed forces to make better use of its "Enduring strategic asset" - by spying on social media and dobbing in dissenters to local councils. In a move bound to fuel tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists, the MoD's Data Strategy for Defence document [PDF] published this week says the military ought to be carrying out "Automated scanning of social media platforms" to detect "Change in population sentiment."

The questions have gotten more sophisticated and less suspicious. I've noticed a significant uptick in Facebook questions that ask users to answer seemingly innocent questions one wouldn't think could put anyone in danger.

Los Angeles police are instructed to collect social media details from people they stop and talk to, even if those civilians aren't suspected of breaking the law, according to documents finally revealed after a lengthy legal battle. The Brennan Center for Justice, a non-profit law and public policy institute at New York University, early last year submitted a request [PDF] under the California Public Records Act for information on LAPD's use of social media to monitor people and groups.

An Iranian state-sponsored threat actor tracked as TA456 maintained a social media account for several years before engaging with their intended victim, cybersecurity firm Proofpoint reports. The newly detailed activity attributed to the group involved the use of the social media persona "Marcella Flores," which was used to engage with an employee of a subsidiary of an aerospace defense contractor over multiple communication platforms, to gain their trust in an attempt to infect them with malware.

Pro-Trump social media platform GETTR was targeted by hackers shortly after launch - accounts were apparently compromised and tens of thousands of users had their data scraped and leaked online. A Twitter-like platform, GETTR was launched on July 4 by Jason Miller, who served as a spokesperson for former U.S. President Donald Trump.

We have seen a surge in WhatsApp accounts being hacked, if you are sent a text from WhatsApp with a code on it, don't share the code with ANYONE no matter who's asking, or the reason why. We've discussed this scam before on the Naked Security podcast, because it's a good reminder of how cybercriminals use one hijacked social media account to target others.