Social Media Hackers – How do hackers hack you through social media?

How do social media hackers exploit you?

Social Media is tricky terrain even if you think you have been using it for years. Social Media Hackers thrive on the excess of information they can easily access about anyone through their social media platforms. 

Having an active social media account is very common nowadays. Your friends on Facebook, followers on Instagram, and the like can easily access your private information such as what restaurant you had lunch at on Friday, where you work, and even your address. Although social media is a great tool for making connections with like-minded people and reaching a global audience, it has its drawbacks. 

Social media can record your online activities, your likes, dislikes, and even your transactions. This is why it is considered a gold mine by those who exploit information. The information that you have can be used by hackers to steal your identity, threaten you and your family, extortion, and many other crimes. This is why it is so important for us to be mindful of what we share on these platforms. 

Here are some ways in which social media can prove to be a danger to you. 

Dangers of social media  

There are many different ways that people can try and protect themselves from hackers. Social media allows hackers to trick people into giving up these measures and coax information out of them. This is called social engineering. 

People post information about themselves., their professions, and even their peers on social media. This way hackers always have access to an influx of data. 

You may wonder if the only way out of this is not using social media, but it is understanding how social engineering takes place and how you can combat it.  

Your social media is where hackers can find plenty of information about you which they then analyze and weaponize. 

Here are some of the most common social engineering tactics used on social media. 

1. Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks are very common when it comes to email or instant messaging platforms. 

When it comes to social media you will find that the social media hackers will try their level best to get you to click on a link. The link will then provide them with useful information about you. 

There are many examples of Phishing attacks such as: 

1. Lotteries
2. Personality tests
3. Urgent help that requires payment details or personal information

These attempts are not only limited to social media. But they are very common. \social media provides hackers with a chance to draw out information from you by providing you something very enticing in return. Phishing links often link shorteners and hide the domain information so that you are not able to determine the legitimacy of the website. 

2. Impersonating 

Photos, work details, and the like can provide quite useful information to hackers. They can do plenty with the bits and pieces of information they get from your social media profile. They can create a fake account to impersonate and defame you. Your Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin are connected to key areas of your life such as work, business, and even PR. An attacker can take advantage of this to connect to your colleagues, close friends and even your family. Often people are unable to differentiate a real profile from identity theft until it is too late. 

3. Accessing Your Account 

Your date of birth, phone number, pet’s name, and other information on social media. This is crucial information that the malicious party can use to access your accounts, breakthrough 2 -point verification, and more. 

Using a stronger password, or using a password manager will help you create a filter. It is very important to consider that unnecessary sharing of information has major consequences for people, especially with the social media, now reading like everyone’s personal diary. 

4. Creating a Filter Bubble

The most dangerous thing you can do is give an attacker the ability to control the type of posts you see. This is quite alarming but filter bubbles refer to the network you have around you. It is best described by the posts that appear on your Instagram’s Explore section. Those are the types of posts you have shown interest in. the algorithm is showing you those posts on purpose. The hackers will manipulate your Explore section to show you posts that they want you to see. 

Being exposed to a certain type of information over time can influence your behaviors and decisions. These posts that we see on social media affect us and a hacker can use this against us if they get access to it. If you see a great deal of praise about a certain artist, you will be curious about their music and play them on Spotify sooner or later. The same goes for any other type of media consumed repetitively over time. It will be registered by your brain unconsciously as the truth. This is used by marketing companies on many different levels and is proven effective. 

It can just as easily be used for malicious or illegal activity. 

5. Physical Scams

Sharing your travel plans, location and other material interests can allow a hacker to coordinate the physical attack. They can do so by gathering official details, surveys, related interests, and the like to weaponize against you. 

So next time you are away on vacation, maybe wait till you’re back home to post the pictures and stories. 

How to avoid getting hacked? 

You can protect yourself from hackers by taking an inventory of the stuff you post online.

• Do not share personal interests
• Recent purchases
• Details about your family 
• Edit your images to hide key details 
• Enforce security measures on your smartphone, workstation and pc. 
• Don’t use the Wifi connection everywhere you go 
• If you are using a PC somewhere public, go Incognito

Do not share your personal interests

Your personal interest means it could be a product or something else. In this online shopping era, you buy a lot of things via online shopping. We all have our own interests. Girls have their own choice and boys have different. So if you like something or some product so don’t share it with people publicly. Many fool people share their interests via social media posts. So just try to avoid them.

Recent purchases

As i already said, online shopping is a common thing today. So don’t share what you recently bought. Because what did you buy if you share it so hackers could start tracking you. They will follow your next move and they will try to hack you some way.

Details about your family

This is the worst thing people do this day. Your family is a very private thing. If you are a celebrity so it’s different. Because celebrities have their own security system and also hackers don’t target big people. Damn hackers always had big plans on their minds. They are very patient people. They will take time and they will start making conversation with you. Maybe they are gonna also lie to you that they have a family like you etc. SO don’t just share any of your information and your family members too.

Don’t use the WIFI connection everywhere you go

Restaurants, hotels, Bars, Convention centers provide free WIFI connections. Because they want to get more people and they do this because of public attraction. You know everyone wants internet everywhere and if you watch something on YouTube or Tiktok so you need many internets. So this is why if the public get a free internet connection so they will come to your bar only. But don’t do that. Public wifi is not safe at all. Hackers can very easily hack you via that public WIFI network.

Conclusion

While we know that hackers have more avenues to gather and manipulate information, you can also take the necessary steps to avoid becoming an easy target. Identity theft and hacking attempts can tarnish your reputation and relations. By taking charge of your cyber security you can ensure that you browse the internet safe from social media hackers. Sometimes people hire a hacker to hack their enemy social media account.