The social media landscape has undergone dramatic change in recent years. Elon Musk bought Twitter and changed its name to "X." Mark Zuckerberg bought Instagram and WhatsApp before launching Threads to capitalize on Twitter's recent PR disasters. TikTok came out of nowhere to become the platform of choice for Gen Z. One thing, however, has stayed the same. Facebook remains, somewhat surprisingly, the most popular social media platform.
In last few years, cyber espionage has taken a new form. A recent investigation by The Times has unveiled a Chinese intelligence officer's extensive use of LinkedIn to target UK officials. Operating under the alias "Robin Zhang," this spy has been luring thousands of officials, scientists, and academics to hand over state secrets and sensitive technology information.
Keeping your social media accounts safe is crucial to keeping your sensitive data protected. In this blog, you’ll learn how to strengthen your accounts by using strong and unique passwords, setting up MFA, adjusting your privacy settings and keeping an eye on your account activity. Continue reading to learn more ways you can secure your social media accounts and the common threats social media accounts face.
Security researchers have identified that a widespread LinkedIn malicious hacking campaign has seen many users locked out of their accounts worldwide. Some users who have had their access to their LinkedIn accounts blocked by the cybercriminals changing their passwords have been pressured into paying a ransom, according to a report from Cyberint, and threatened with permanent account deletion.
New reports show many LinkedIn users have reported complaints about accounts being taken over by bad actors. In a statement from Cyberint researcher Coral Tayar, "Some have even been pressured into paying a ransom to regain control or faced with the permanent deletion of their accounts," The reported complaints are on other social media forum platforms such as Reddit, Microsoft, and X with several users expressing frustration due to the lack of response from their support team.
Social platforms are the current favorite target of cybercriminals, displacing financial institutions, providing cybercriminals with credentials to be used as launch points for further phishing campaigns. Most cyber attacks we read about seem to involve an organization that was attacked because it was perceived to have a lot of money that could be parted with via ransomware, extortion, digital fraud, etc.
Scammers are taking advantage of Twitter’s rebranding to “X,” according to Stephanie Adlam at Gridinsoft. A phishing campaign is targeting Twitter Blue users by telling them they need to transfer their subscription to X.