With the usual habit of social media users that don’t really care about their social media accounts, they are giving the hackers the easy opportunity to steal their accounts. There are many instances of social media accounts getting stolen by hackers in various ways. They might steal those accounts via phishing, which is the most common, or they might do it by breaking into the user’s system, which is usually done when the users are getting careless with their network connection.
For instance, when you connect to the internet using the public WiFi network without protecting your internet connection, it will usually give the hackers an easy opportunity to penetrate your network and steal the password of your social media accounts. One of the best ways to prevent this from happening is by protecting your network connection using VPN. Here are some tips to use VPN to prevent hackers from stealing your social media accounts:
1. Don’t Use The Same Or Simple Passwords For All Your Accounts
Many social media users that don’t care about their account security will usually use either simple passwords like their date of birth, nickname, and so on, or the same passwords across all their accounts. It means that they have the same password, and sometimes the same username, for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus, and other social media accounts. This can be very dangerous, because when hackers succeed in stealing one of your passwords, it means that all your social media accounts will be at risk. This is a precaution that you have to understand to ensure that your accounts are safe from hackers.
2. Bring Your VPN Wherever You Go
VPN is the tool that you can use to ensure that your network connection is always secure and private, which means that no matter what network that you use, you can encrypt the network connection with VPN and make your connection secure with it. A secure network means a protected system for you, since hackers usually steal their victim’s social media accounts by penetrating their internet network first. So, it’s important to bring VPN wherever you go, and use your VPN whenever you need to connect to the internet, regardless of the device that you use.
3. Use Your VPN For Every Communication App
Most communication apps that are available for mobile devices are usually encrypted with the end-to-end encryption system. It means that the content of the communication can only be read by the users that initiate such communication. No third-party can monitor the communications within the apps that use the end-to-end encryption system. While it might be generally safe for you to use these communications apps without any additional encryption, VPN is still needed to protect the network that these apps use to send the messages back and forth. It gives you a double-layered security that is even more difficult for hackers to penetrate.
4. Don’t Open Any Suspicious Text Message, Email, Or Call
The most common method that hackers use to steal many people’s social media accounts is by sending fake messages, emails, or calls to their victims. Then, they will instruct the victims to write their username and password in a fake website that resembles the original social media platform. Once the victims write their username and password, then they are effectively sending their sensitive information to the hackers. This is called phishing, and many people have been duped by this scheme. This is why even though you are using VPN all the time, it is always recommended for you to be cautious of the messages, emails, and calls that you receive.
5. Use VPN That Comes With Firewall And Anti-malware Features
When choosing a VPN service provider, you have to be aware of the features that they offer. The less features that they offer, the more you should avoid using those VPN services. Always choose the VPN service provider that offers firewall and anti-malware features for the added security of your network connection. The firewall feature gives you the best prevention against various forms of cyber attacks, while the anti-malware feature will ensure that you will not come across malicious apps, websites, software, and any other threats that might harm your system or put your personal identity at risk.
Those are the tips to use VPN to prevent hackers from stealing your social media accounts. If you follow these tips, there will be very little chance that your system is getting targeted by hackers, since it is very difficult to breach. Even when the hackers are persistent enough, they have to deal with various security measures that you have put around your system, which makes it almost impossible for the hackers to steal any of your sensitive information.