With the proliferation of social media, governments must ensure they’re taking the appropriate steps to secure their departmental accounts. Hacking, phishing, malware, and keystroke logging are all things that can wreak havoc not only on social media accounts, but on computers and other office hardware as well.
Data breaches can be a monumental and devastating problem for large organizations and federal departments, but there are several steps that can be taken to keep social media accounts and confidential information secure:
• Lay out specific and concrete policies for the use of social media, and establish procedures to preserve all content generated by the department on social media feeds.
• Avoid simple passwords. Don’t use something that anyone could correctly guess after a few tries, and don’t use something that is being used across multiple accounts. If one account gets compromised, it puts the others at risk as well.
• Use caution when clicking on links or running applications. Some links and applications can download malware, such as keylogging viruses, onto the computer. Try not to run any applications that require the sharing of personal information.
• Always keep anti-virus software up to date in the event that malware does somehow get downloaded onto the computer.
• Never post personal or confidential information, and ensure that personal and professional accounts are kept entirely separate to avoid accidental cross-posting.
• Always revise privacy settings whenever a site’s privacy policies get updated.
Are departments doing enough to secure their social media accounts? What else can be done to deal with these issues? Let us know in the comments.
