Protecting Your Social Media Accounts Against Heartbleed

by aschmidt

Protecting Social Media Against HeartbleedHeartbleed is the biggest Internet security threat that’s come to light, well, possibly ever. Your most sensitive information that’s stored on your most used accounts (Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, your bank, your online dating profile…) could have been left open and exposed for the past two years due to this encryption flaw. Ok. Deep breath – so now that you know, how do you protect your social media accounts from further exposure?

The good news is that not all of your frequently-used sites have been affected. Mashable has contacted some of the most popular social, email, banking and commerce sites and asked what measures users should take to protect themselves. Some say that they’ve already located and patched the bug, but that users should go in and change their passwords as soon as possible as a precautionary measure. For a look at who Mashable reached out to, click here to read The Heartbleed Hit List: The Passwords You Need to Change Right Now.

As a rule, you should change your passwords frequently and keep from using the same one for multiple accounts. This is extremely important when it comes to your business’s social media accounts – your brand on social media is carefully crafted and fine-tuned for engaging and delighting customers, and if a security breach were to occur, the result could be extremely detrimental to your brand message. Updating your passwords regularly is an excellent practice as a manager of your business’s social and other online accounts.

For more steps you can take with your business pages to ensure that all your social media accounts stay secure, read our post on 5 Recommended Security Measures for Business Social Media Accounts.

 

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