Social Media account shave been a popular target for hackers and cyber criminals looking to steal a user’s information for a plethora of nefarious reasons. Social media accounts are targeted by Identity Thieves and can also lead to the compromise of other accounts the victim may hold or friends and families.
There are a number of methods that hackers employ to compromise our social media accounts the most common being through phishing attacks or malicious app downloads. Social Media platforms from Instagram, to Facebook, and even smaller platforms such as snapchat or tumblr are targets for social media hackers. With companies large and small maintaining a social media presence, they open themselves up to possible attacks to these same platforms.
Many attackers will target an organization or popular executive’s social media accounts in an effort to scam a large audience by posting a link to buy cheap cryptocurrency or have sums of cash sent to them in exchange for certain information.
These platforms have made efforts to try to better secure their internal networks as well as providing tools to their user base to take advantage of. However these security patches aren’t without their own flaws, as security analysts discovered with Facebooks newest security implementation. Hackers with only some basic skills were able to exploit the SS7 network were able to break into Facebook accounts. Hackers only needed a targets phone number to breach their Facebook account. Regardless of how strong the users password or security question was, the accounts were still vulnerable.
How This SMS Style Attack Works
Signaling System Number 7 (SS7) is a signaling protocol that is used the send and receive information, cross-carrier billing, allow roaming on SIM cards and accounts for features. A hacker can send an SMS message to the victim with a link they might click on, which then executes malicious code on the victim’s mobile device. The malicious code executed on the device could provide the hacker everything they need to then access their social media accounts.
This is in essence like common phishing scams that target our email accounts. Instead the phishing scam comes in the form of an SMS message, which may create the vernier of authenticity.
Implementing security methods such as 2 factor authentication and forcing users to verify their information after a certain period are useful tools that you as a user can use to try to better protect your social media accounts.
Other things you can do to protect your online accounts are being aware of phishing scams and SMS messages that you don’t recognize. Avoid clicking links from texts that you receive from unknown numbers, and verify that someone like a contact sending you a link out of the blue is legit as well. Knowing that you phone, just like your computer, is susceptible to malicious attacks can help you take preventative steps in implementing security for your accounts.
Natural Networks is a top 501 Managed Service Provider in the country, and we work with our clients to ensure their accounts are protected and secure with the right security protocols enabled. If your interested in learning more about securing your online accounts, email, networks and more, give us a call today!
