CYBER SECURITY FOR INFLUENCERS

Written By Bill Swearingen
A group of people sitting on the edge of a bridge

Episode 1/3

You have built your life online. Your followers enjoy your content, and your personality. Your reputation and relationships rely on the content you post via your social media and other online accounts. Don’t let them be ruined by a spammer who took advantage of an account that was not properly secured.

This series of posts will help guide you in configuring your accounts and offer some general security tips to greatly enhance the security of your social media accounts (and the advice can be used for other accounts as well). I hope that you will commit to accomplishing everything that is mentioned here today, and if you find anything surprising please let us know with a tweet to @TRIFIDENT. 😇

SECURE YOUR ACCOUNTS WITH A STRONG PASSPHRASE AND MULTI-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION:

I’m sure you have already heard this one, but it is important. It is time to stop using “passwords” and start using “pass-phrases”. Did you know that when it comes to passwords length is actually more important than complexity? The longer the better. Now is the time to change your password to a phrase that you know and will remember. Let me give you an example. Which do you think is more secure?

Password: n77&&-45
Passphrase: This one time! I saw a BIRD on the beach

That’s right, the passphrase! And it is easier to remember too! I recommend using a passphrase that uses 4 or more words and is at least 15 characters long, and throw some symbols in the middle somewhere to make it extra secure. Also, passphrases (or passwords) should be unique for every site. Never EVER re-use a password/passphrase. EVER. I highly suggest that you use a password manager to store (and generate) passwords for every online service you use. Password managers that I suggest are LastPass, Dashlane, or if you are looking for a free option I really like BitWarden. Maybe I’ll write a post on using a password manager in the future, let me know if you would be interested in that.

Funny Hint: hackers hate it when you include a space “ “ or a colon “:” in your passwords. If you can guess why, tell me the answer on Twitter @TRIFIDENT. If you get it right, I will 💖 it and give you a follow. WOW!

Next, (and the most important) is to enable multi-factor authentication on all your accounts. If a cyber criminal attempts to hack into your account, they not only need to guess your password, but they will get stopped in their tracks because they will also need to provide a second authentication factor. Enabling MFA on your accounts is literally the most effective way at preventing account take over, and it should be enabled on every single account you have online. It is not only for banking applications any more!

A second factor could be:

Something you have: A cellphone, keycard, or USB could all verify your identity.
Something you are: Fingerprints, iris scans, or some other biometric data prove that you are who you say you are.

Generally, all social media platforms support multi-factor authentication. It can usually be enabled in your account settings, under “Security” or “Authentication” sections. To make it easy for you, I have linked the settings pages for some of my favorite social media platforms below. When you configure your account, you will often see several MFA options: SMS, Authentication App, or maybe even a Security Key. I will be releasing another blog post in the future about the strengths and weaknesses of each, but if you have the option use a Security Key or Authentication app over SMS. Only use SMS if you absolutely have too - it is significantly less secure than the other two options. If you can guess why, tell me the answer on Twitter @TRIFIDENT. If you get it right, I will 💖 it and give you a follow. WOWx2!

This entire series is dedicated to help guide you in configuring your social media accounts to make them cyber strong (do it today!). In order to make the recommendations easy to consume and take action on, I’ve split them into a series of three small bite-sized posts. I hope that you will commit to changing your passwords to passphrases today!

Stay tuned for the upcoming episode:
REVIEWING AND REVOKING UNNEEDED APPS WITH PERMISSION TO YOUR ACCOUNT

UNCOMMON EXPERTISE TO BUILD
EXCEPTIONAL SECURITY PROGRAMS

TRIFIDENT is comprised of professionals with real-world experience spanning US Government, Fortune 200, and critical infrastructure cyber operations. We value expertise, professionalism, customer service, and discretion above all else. Our goal is to partner with you to understand your specific needs, assess your cyber threat profile, and then develop with you a cybersecurity strategy to reduce risk that fits within your corporate or personal lifestyle.

Bill Swearingen
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CYBER SECURITY FOR INFLUENCERS