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Your Site, Your Security, Your Responsibility

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Last time, we talked a great deal about why you never want to go to court and the reasons that good attorneys will fight tooth and nail to keep you to out of court and away from judges/juries.

However, one of the sad truths of the Internet is that it’s easily possible to find yourself in a legal mess through almost no fault of your own if someone else infiltrates your site.

It might seem like an unlikely scenario, but if your site is hacked or taken over, you can find yourself with a great deal of legal difficulties. Even if you can clear your name quickly, your site, your account and your server could become evidence in a much larger case and you could easily find yourself shut out of even your backups as authorities, lawyers or others try to piece together what happened.

The problem is even worse if you store user data, in particular sensitive data such as credit card numbers and personal information, such as names and passwords. Not only do you face a potential breach of trust with your readers, but the authorities will likely want to know more about the hack and, at the very least, you’ll need to be offline while you figure out what happened and you could be found to be in violation of legal responsibilities you have to protect such data.

If you want your site to run smoothly and be free from interference from government and law enforcement, security is crucial. It’s not something you can be relaxed on, even if you think no one would take an interest in your site.

After all, it’s the ones who think they can’t get hacked or won’t get hacked that fall first. Not because their hubris draws out attackers, but because they fail to take the basic steps that can prevent a security meltdown. [Read more…] about Your Site, Your Security, Your Responsibility

How to Maintain Social Media Account Security

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After a story broke recently about Wired.com writer Mat Honan getting “epically hacked”, there has been an swell of articles reminding users to take precautions to stay safe online. The basic commandents are these:

  • Have very unique passwords that aren’t real words, or have random words jumbled together. Use a mixture of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters (like @, !, and #). Never use obvious things, like your name, family member names, or the word “password”.
  • Have automatic, secure backup on your computer. This is worth paying for! Top backup programs include Carbonite, Dropbox (for files only), and Mozy. Most of these are around $5-$8 per month. If you only want to back up files and documents, Google Cloud or Documents are also options.
  • Be careful who you give your passwords to or where you store them. Try to not use the same password for all accounts, especially email and social media.

So why do these tips matter to social media marketers? The fact remains that because social media accounts are so interconnected with the rest of our online lives (think of how many websites use your Facebook account login via the Facebook API) that is is crucial to keep them secure. This is especially true for companies and the individuals that manage the corporate accounts.

Two-Step Authentication

Facebook and Gmail offer two-step authentication for account users. Any time someone tries to log into your account from a new computer, a text message is automatically sent to your phone with an access code for logging in. Yes, it is an additional step, but think of what is at stake. In Mat Honan’s case, the hacker erased his entire email account and his iTunes account. To activate two-step authentication, go to the security settings in your account.

Password Variation

Each social media profile for your company or as an individual should have a separate password. It could follow a simple pattern, such as the first 4 letters of the company name plus 01, then the next 4 letters of the company name: “perf01orma”. Except, make sure the numbers are random or don’t follow a set pattern. It is important to be as random as possible so hackers won’t figure out the pattern, thus granting access to multiple accounts.

 

The main point when it comes to internet security is to just use common sense. Check URLs to make sure they are the correct site before inputting passwords and don’t get lazy about being proactive about staying secure.