Your Facebook Account is Worth More to Cybercriminals than You Might Think

In both business and personal life, Facebook and other social media platforms have become a pretty fundamental part of how people do things. Not only do we keep in touch with our friends and families, we manage our business’ reputations through these accounts.

Obviously, the thought of someone taking over these accounts is unnerving, but you’d be surprised as to how much value it can give a cybercriminal.

Let’s take a few moments to dive into why a social media hack is so disruptive…particularly for a business owner.

Social Media Hacks are No Joke

How much have you shared on your social media, for the entire time you’ve maintained it? Chances are, it’s a lot more than you may think. A lot of it has probably been unintentional, as we’ll get into a little later. 

There are quite a few cyberattacks that are commonly shared via social media, phishing, and other forms of social engineering taking advantage of the inherent trust that many people have towards these platforms. However, that’s just the start of the problems business owners on the platform can easily suffer.

Oftentimes, these phishing attacks are intended to completely take over a user’s account. So, what happens when your account—the one that controls your business’ social media presence—is hijacked?

Your Business is Particularly Susceptible to Social Media Hacks

Should an attacker gain access to your business’ official social media presence, there’s a variety of ways that your business could feel the impact.

Your Business Could Suffer from Deleted Content and Unexpected Ad Charges
A business’s social media is important, as it allows that business to communicate with its clientele on a more casual level, while still educating them about the benefits of its services. However, imagine spending hours of work crafting your social media, only to have it all wiped away. Imagine investing your valuable marketing budget into boosting your posts, only to have your account drained through ineffective spending—or worse, your ad changed and used as a means of attack against others.

Your Business Could Be Used to Spread Scams and Inappropriate Content
Speaking of attacking others, your social media and your business’s reputation could be used to promote scams. If you’ve established any amount of trust with your prospects, this could easily ruin it.

Furthermore, imagine what could happen to your business’ standing amongst the community if it is used to share inappropriate content, which has also happened to businesses in the past.

Your Business Could Lose Access to Other Resources
Ideally, you wouldn’t have done so, but Facebook makes it very easy to use your social media profile to access your other accounts, so you may have been tempted to do so for some of your business’ resources.

Your Business Could have Its Social Media Held For Ransom
It also needs to be said that cybercriminals understand how important a business’s social media is. They know how valuable control of it is, and they’re willing to take advantage of that. Should your social media be taken over, you could easily expect to receive a ransom demand for its return.

How to Protect Your Business’ Social Media Profile

At the end of the day, protecting your business’ social media comes down to protecting your own. Don’t hand out access to anyone who doesn’t absolutely need it for their role in your business, protect your accounts with good passwords and multi-factor authentication whenever possible, and don’t be afraid to report any suspicious activity.