Cybersecurity and your digital presence: 6 ways to help you own and safeguard the digital you in the social media age

In an increasingly digital and connected world, consumers have shifted focus to creating robust online presences that reflect their digital identity.

An active digital life with a strong social media presence undoubtedly brings professional and personal rewards that make users project overconfidence, to the detriment of their security and privacy.

Netizens who are overly confident and dismiss the dangers are also the ones who, unfortunately, fall victim to identity thieves, impersonators and other privacy threats that often come with an active social media image.

Now, we're not saying that these risks should stop you from leveraging your opportunities and skillsets to grow your relationships, business or career online. We just want to highlight how crucial it is to safely engage with others on social media, protect your identity and create a positive digital presence.

Here are six practical tips from Bitdefender to help you manage and protect the digital you:

• Limit the time you spend online whenever possible. The more time you spend in the digital world, the more susceptible you are to hacking, social engineering schemes, harassment or simply being caught in unpleasant conversations and groups that jeopardize your reputation.
• Avoid sharing personal information. This may sound hard, but unless you’re shopping, banking online or signing up for particular services, there’s no need to overshare or make particular info public. When using social media platforms, don’t make your email address, phone number, home address and other identifiable data public for the entire world to see. This way you can also avoid doxing and prevent scammers from using this data to target you.
• Safeguard your digital presence by securing all of your online accounts with strong passwords and additional layers of security (2FA and MFA), and frequently review your accounts’ status, ensuring that you’re up to date with the latest privacy settings and features that can help keep you more secure.

Pro tip: Keep up with the latest threats and safety measures and conduct a survey of all of your accounts, deleting the ones you no longer use.

• Never let your guard down and watch out for scams and other social engineering schemes that spread via social media or other platforms. Trust your intuition and distance yourself from conversations that make you feel uncomfortable. Scrutinize all unsolicited correspondence and never click on suspicious links or engage with individuals who promise you money or a great bargain. Nothing is free in the digital world!
• Don’t take chances when posting on social media. Be mindful of your digital presence so as to not give out details that can leave you or your family members vulnerable (location or travel plans). Think twice before uploading videos or sharing photos as you may unwittingly provide sensitive details that could ruin your reputation, and expose you to harassment or other harms in the digital and physical world.
• Use basic netiquette and be a responsible netizen! Don’t spam, share fake news or sensitive media, or make others feel uncomfortable. Never tag others in embarrassing pictures or posts (you shouldn’t be sharing them in the first place) and don’t make mean comments about others. Remember, your social media profile offers insights about the real you, and family members, teachers and potential employers or romantic interests can easily make assumptions based on your social media profile.

If you want to improve your cybersecurity posture and fend off scams and fraud attempts, check out Bitdefender’s security plans. You can block phishing and nasty internet threats while benefiting from a premium VPN, a password manager, and identity protection to stay on top of data breaches and impersonation and stop fraud attempts.

Read more about our security suites here.