Social Media Security: Understanding how to keep yourself safe.

General Tips to Stay Safe on Social Media Never give out personal information! Name, age, address, etc. Don’t post or say anything you wouldn’t say to your Grandma! If you wouldn’t say it to an adult you know you probably shouldn’t say it online. Know who can see what you post or put out on the internet! This way you can make sure that strangers don’t have access to your information. Don’t be afraid to use your privacy settings! On the following slides we will show you how to change those settings and what your options are.

How to be Secure on Facebook The first step in securing you Facebook page is to set who can see your profile!

Be as Open or Private as you want. It’s up to you who can view your page. Public: Anyone with access to the internet can view your Facebook page. Friends: Only users you have added are able to access your Facebook page. Custom: Only specified users can access your Facebook page. Me: Only you have access to your Facebook page.

Another step is to set who can send you friend requests! You can do this to make sure that you aren’t receiving friend requests from complete strangers! Everyone: Anyone with a Facebook account can send you a friend request. Friends of friends: Only people who are friends with your Facebook friends can send you friend requests.

How to be Secure on Twitter Go to your account settings and select the security and privacy tab. It’ll look like this!

Privacy Settings on Twitter Photo tagging allows for you to decide who can tag you in photos. Tweet privacy allows you the choice of making your tweets available to anyone or just those who you give approval to. Tweet location allows you to include or not include the location that you last tweeted from.

Social Media Scams and How to Avoid them ClickJacking also known as LikeJacking: When a user clicks an online article link it can trigger malicious scripts that can cause them to “like” a page without their knowledge or even post things without their consent. To avoid these scams you should always make sure the link you are about to click on is being shared by a reliable and safe source and if you think it isn’t you can always just look up the information yourself online using sources you know and trust. Malicious Apps also known as Rogue Apps: When a users downloads a suspicious app from Google Play or even a Facebook app this can allow hackers to be able to access sensitive information about you, your friends and your family To avoid these types of scams you should always research the apps and games you play and only download ones that you trust from companies you know.

Social Media Scams and How to Avoid them Continued Pharming: Users may think they are clicking on legitimate links to websites they trust but instead they are clicking on a mimicking link, this gives hackers access to important personal information. To avoid these scams always check the URL of the link you are about to click even simple changes like a missing letter in the URL can be an easy way of spotting pharming scams. Spammed Tweets or Spammed Posts: Users may click on links they have seen numerous times on their social media feed and end up having their accounts hacked and even used to repost the spammed post. Here is an example of a bad link to fake site. http://www.scamadviser.com/is-instantaffirm.com-a-fake-site.html To avoid these scams you should only go to secure sites and be cautious of the links you click on.

(Bonus points for adding explanations for each answer!) Quiz! Lets see how much you remember with this quick quiz on how to stay safe on social media! (Bonus points for adding explanations for each answer!) What are the four Facebook privacy setting types? Answer: Public, friends, custom, and me. What are the two options for Friend request settings called? Answer: Everyone and friends of friends. How can you make sure your tweets are not public? Answer: By making sure you have selected the “Protect my Tweets” privacy option. What are three different types of common scams and how can you avoid them? Answer: Any three of the previously mention scams. (ClickJacking/LikeJacking, Rogue Apps, Spammed Posts, Malicious Apps, Spammed Tweets, and Pharming.)

Put your skills to the test! What are some of the things you could do in the following situations? You recently went to a party with some of your friends and a lot of silly pictures were taken. Some of those pictures are a bit inappropriate. One of your friends posts a few on Facebook and tags you in them and they have their profile set to be visible to the public. You are a bit worried because you have an important interview coming up and it’s very likely that the interviewers will check your social media history. What should you do? You notice that a lot of people have been retweeting some of your selfies. When you go to their profile you see their bios say they are in their late thirties and forties. You get a bit uncomfortable because of how much older they are compared to you. You notice they follow a few of your friends too and have been retweeting their selfies too. You mention it to your friends a few days later, they are also very uncomfortable with this news. What can you and your friends do to fix the situation? Possible solutions for the first situation include: un-tagging yourself from the photos or asking your friend to remove the pictures, you can even ask them to just crop you out of the photos and re-post them or just ask your friend to change their privacy settings. Possible solutions for the second situation include: blocking the users or change your twitter safety settings to protect your tweets.

It’s Your Turn! What are some safety tips you know? Share them with the class and help your classmates stay safe too!