We all know the role that social media now plays in the world.  Between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,  SnapChat, and LinkedIn, social media has become nearly inescapable.  While these sites are amazing resources for connecting people across the globe, they all come with risks.  These risks not only could affect you but also your friends, family, and employer.  This article is going to cover some key steps for securely using social media.

Perhaps the most important and obvious step towards securely using social media is to be careful of what you post.  Even if you enable privacy features and think your posts are not viewable to everyone, you should still post with the mindset that it can be viewed by everyone.  If it could negatively impact your reputation and future, it should not be posted on any social media platform.

Even though privacy features should not be viewed as a filter that blocks your posts from being viewed by anyone, they should still be enabled.  Almost all social media sites have strong privacy features.  However, with strong privacy features comes change and confusion.  You should make it a habit to check for any changes and to confirm they are working the way they are intended.

Another seemingly obvious security step is to create a strong, unique password.  This has been drilled into all computer users head’s but it is still avoided by many people.  The reason for its avoidance is simple.  People have a hard time remembering complex passwords and do not want to have to remember passwords for multiple systems.  While we recognize the annoyance in having multiple complex passwords, it is still a key step in securely using not only social media sites but computers in general.

Unfortunately, creating a strong password for all of your accounts is no longer enough.  You should still have a strong password but you should also enable two-factor authentication on all of your social media accounts.  Pitt has already enabled two-factor authentication when logging into my.pitt.edu in order to protect you from people who could potentially obtain your password.  While this may seem like more work, your personal information will be substantially more secure.  To look at it another way, you would not want simply having your ATM card as a way to withdraw money.  Banks knew this and decided a pin was also necessary to access the features of an ATM card.

You should also be careful of what you click on when using social media sites.  There is a good chance you can be tricked into providing personal information by clicking on a fraudulent post or link. If a friend’s post seems suspicious you should avoid accessing it.

Being careful of what you post, creating a strong password, enabling two-factor authentication, and being careful of what you click on when using social media sites are all effective ways to securely use social media.  If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please submit a ticket through the FIS portal.