Using social media for your business has many benefits. Not only do you get twenty-four-hour, seven days a week coverage all over the world where a potential customer might see your business, but it is also a great way to hone in and target your true audience. You could go viral, but you could also be the next big trend.
However, there are a lot of threats to working as a business on social media. Here are some of those dangers that you should be aware of.
You should be aware of as many kinds of social engineering as possible
Generally, a quick google search could tell you all you need to about social engineering, as in this article from Proofpoint. But what social engineering can do to your business when applied on social media might be a little bit trickier to find.
Social media is a hotspot for cybercriminals who are well trained in phishing and pretexting. On social media, it is so easy to create a legitimate-looking account. It can contain photos, followers, and information to look entirely real.
This can be used in so many ways to get in contact with your business account and get hold of emails and information, and even stalk and target your employees, which is very scary and a very real threat. Here are some threats you should know about
You need to beware of phishing
Phishing is something that is used to bring fear or urgency to giving data. Posing as someone who claims to have been scammed by the company and threatening to take it public can be a good example of this. It will make your employees panic and make a mistake as a result.
This is something that you have to be very aware of in all kinds of business interactions with customers, and you must remind your employees (no matter how obvious it is) that they should not be giving out data or passwords to anyone without confirmation from the person through another means, such as through text or email, not over social media.
Don’t forget about pretexting
Pretexting can be really dangerous as it can be used to extract data from an unsuspecting employee. In the example of a business on social media, for example, you might find that innocent questions and statements from direct messages might be slowly turning into ways to build a connection with your social media team and lure them into giving away personal information.
This is a threat that is very common, especially if the scammer is catfishing as someone who is very attractive to catch someone on your team out.
A few final
To wrap things up, social media can be a scary place to boost your business. You need to be aware of the many threats, two of which are phishing scams and pretexting. This can be something that you might find to be off-putting, but by handling it correctly, your business will be safe to thrive on social media.