You don’t want to get spammed; nobody does. Unfortunately, it happens to EVERYONE, and it’s just getting worse. All this unwelcome correspondence happens over the phone, through email, and especially on social media. In today’s blog, we’ll talk a little bit about how social media puts users at risk and what you can do to keep that risk from becoming a problem for you.
All it takes is a couple minutes on social media to see all of the “outrage” over whatever is happening in the world at the moment. Before you know it, you’re invested in some issue that you’ve never heard of up until that moment, and you’re left wondering, “Why?” Today, we want to explore this phenomenon of how social media brings you to care so deeply about things that are rarely actually your problem (and why it can be so harmful).
Funerals are never to be taken lightly, which makes it all the worse that there are people out there willing to use these events to scam those in grief. Recently, Facebook has seen many groups that supposedly offer links to streamed funerals in exchange for credit card data, with different events being added more recently.
Sorry for the loaded title. There’s a lot to talk about, even for those of you who don’t use or even know what Telegram is.
We’ll try to sum this up, because we think there is a lot to say about security and the nature of technology in this, and like all things these days, there’s some odd rabble-rousing about this whole series of events. Who’s up for a wild ride?
Last week we went through some of the issues that Facebook is dealing with in regards to its security and data privacy. Today, we thought it would be helpful to give you the tools you need to protect your privacy on Facebook.
Maintaining data security is an important consideration, and most people try to do what they must to secure their personal data. They verify emails; they roll out antivirus and antimalware; they take vigilant steps to avoid the myriad of threats and active attacks we all deal with from one day to the next.
Social media scams are fraudulent schemes or deceptive activities that take place on various social media platforms. Users of Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and dozens of others have been victims of these attacks. These scams can target users of all ages and backgrounds, and they aim to exploit people's trust, curiosity, or lack of awareness. Social media scams come in various forms, and here are some common ones.
Last time, we started our discussion on the best search engines by talking about the behemoth, Google. While Google is, by far, the most popular and commonly used, and arguably the most accurate search engine, it doesn’t mean it’s always the right search engine to use. Let’s talk about some other alternatives and see where they might fit in.
Even if you lived under a rock, you’ve probably done a Google search or two. There are, in fact, other search engines, each with their own pros and cons. We’re going to compare some of the most popular search engines and talk about what makes them different.
Social media is often seen as simply a consumer technology that has limited value to businesses, but you might be surprised by how much proper use of social media can impact it. Here are four benefits your business could potentially see from using social media websites and applications.
It is not an exaggeration to refer to social media as a world-changing technology, impacting life in all manners—interpersonal, social, and professional. We wanted to focus on this last aspect and discuss how social media can assist a business in its operations.
Almost daily there is another data breach reported that exposes data for hundreds of thousands or millions of people. This is a troubling trend. One of the most troubling events happened recently as 700 million profiles from the social media network LinkedIn were found for sale on a popular hackers forum. What’s worse is that the company isn’t admitting that it had been breached recently. Let’s take a brief look at this situation and try to unpack what is going on with LinkedIn.
Nowadays, social media companies have a lot of power and influence, which is part of the reason that so many of today’s largest businesses have adopted social media as a critical promotional tool. With the average person spending about two hours and 24 minutes on social media and messaging applications per day, this makes social media a clear opportunity for any sized business to embrace. Let’s consider a few ways this can be accomplished for these different businesses.
Social media platforms—like Facebook and Instagram—are a great place to communicate with people, as many political campaigns are now taking advantage of. With an election on the horizon, political advertisements abound on these platforms. Of course, not everyone wants their feeds cluttered with these ads… especially if these ads don’t align to their own politics.
Chances are that if you’re using a smartphone, you’ll have your WiFi turned on as often as you possibly can. This helps to keep data hogs (applications that use a ton of your monthly allotted mobile data) at bay. However, not everyone has the convenience of an Internet connection at all times, particularly while you’re out of the office. Here’s how you can limit the damage done by your favorite smartphone apps.
Cyber security professionals and Internet users rejoice, for the “Spam King,” Sanford Wallace, has finally been sentenced for his longtime use of stolen Facebook credentials to spam other users. Between 2008 and 2009, he had stolen credentials for Facebook accounts, and then used the accounts to send credential-stealing web links. Now, he gets to spend the next two and a half years in prison, and pay an oddly-specific fine of $310,629.
Have you ever encountered something that you thought was interesting on social media, and you wanted to share it with your friends? Before, sharing a link or a story would also slap a status update on your Facebook profile, for all of the world to see. Now, however, Facebook offers an alternative, in the form of sharing a post on the News Feed without also posting it to your timeline.
Social media is a great way for organizations to share information about their products and services, but while it’s great for those who want to reach a new audience, it’s also exposing you to another audience that you may not want to be familiar with: hackers. Believe it or not, there are hackers who are trying to take advantage of the personal information you share on your social media accounts.
Business use IT more today than ever before, and this has led business owners, CIOs and IT managers to constantly search for ways to deliver organizational profitability through technology. They do this by attempting, sometimes futilely, to pinpoint issues with their overall business strategy and practices while discovering technology solutions that will help mitigate these problems. Typically, if an IT manager speculates that a technology implementation will reduce costs or improve productivity, those solutions find a way to be implemented.
In 2017, when there is more technology to choose from than there are colors in a box of crayons, it’s important to rely on competent and frugal managers to find you the technology that can work to make your business more efficient. Here are three ways businesses that have never relied on automation can leverage it to improve some aspect of their business.
Social Media
Nowadays, having a social media presence is standard operating procedure for businesses. Platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn can help to boost your business’ traffic, but if you don’t have the resources to continuously keep up with updating social media, there are options out there that will add some degree of automation to your social media initiatives. The application called Hootsuite was created to assist organizations to enhance their social media presence without having to put as much time and effort into their social media marketing. Hootsuite offers a free plan that supports three social media profiles and two campaigns, and it also has affordable paid options that provide organizations with several additional tools.
Paperless Automation
Going paperless can save your business plenty of resources, but sticking with a paperless office strategy is no easy task. Utilizing modern scanning equipment (as opposed to the old one-page-at-a-time flatbed technology), you can process more documents in less time. Using software to organize, share, and distribute scanned documents, both on-premise or in the cloud, can speed up the overhead and save a lot of time in the long run. Equally as important, is to make sure digitized files are backed up automatically, so your data is stored redundantly in case of a disaster.
Point of Sales and E-Commerce
When your organization sets out to sell products, whether you are focusing on sales inside a brick and mortar store on selling to clients on the Internet, it is important that you have a secure and reliable sales interface. Since business often moves faster than people do, having a solution to process payments, and get products to customers, is essential. There is software that delivers automation by linking your organization's storefront to your fulfillment vendors. This automation, integrating the invoicing, shipping, and customer feedback processes into one easy-to-manage solution, provides any product-based organization the tools they need to enhance customer satisfaction, build reliable customer relationships, and provide top notch support.
If your business is searching for solutions to your major business problems, there is a good chance that there is software that has been developed to remedy those issues. Do you already use automated services to help your business be more efficient? Have you considered trying some to further your organization’s goals? Tell us all about it in the comments section below.
Social media might make it easy to stay connected, but it comes with a lot of negative side-effects--particularly in regard to security for both personal and professional use. If social media isn’t used properly, it could spell trouble for your organization. How can you foster proper social media usage so that your organization doesn’t suffer from poor security practices? It all starts by spreading awareness.
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