Lately, the social media accounts of gospel musicians or musicians in general, have been a target and under serious attack from hackers. The fact is, we cannot spiritualize this issue since this is a major platform to reach out to the lost with our godly content, hence the need to pay attention to this and to do everything possible to protect our accounts from hackers.
Recently the accounts of Ohemaa Mercy, Obaapa Christy, Selina Boateng, just to name a few, have been hacked, denying the rightful owner the chance to even login and annoyingly taking away the fan base they have worked hard to build over time over time.
This is sad and I feel all gospel celebrities must be on the lookout and protect their account from these intruders who are possibly doing it either to resell to other people or just for the fun of it.
Though some of these ways to protect your account may seem simple and basic, it cannot be overemphasized. Hackers exploit the loopholes in the security structures on these platforms to the detriment of its users. You must not be an addition to the numbers.
1. If Possible, Manage Your Accounts
Listen, I am totally for the idea of having ‘Digital Brand Management’ within your team, who will take care of your social media account management. This makes things easier for you, especially when you’re lost in the clouds of content creation, your social media pages will still be active. But I am also for the second school of thought that if possible manage your own accounts especially when you can trust people now!
A little research some blogger friends of mine and I did reveal that almost half of the hacked account happened as a result of the fact that, a known person in the team sold the account to someone else.
“Oh how!”, I believe this is your response right? Well, it’s happening and people will do anything to make money nowadays including selling your musician brand account to others who will quickly rebrand it (change the name and login credentials)
Therefore, you would have to be careful to whom you hand your account over for management. Personally I believe that reputable digital brand management companies will be safer to work with since that’s their job and will do everything possible to do just that, knowing also that you can sue them for negligence.
2. Stop Using An Easy And Relatable Password Strings
The times for using names and dates of birth or a combination of both are long gone. You must not do that on any platform if you value your privacy.
Well, I guess this is one of the things people hate – using a very strong and complicated password as a login credential. Why go through the hustle when I could just use an easy password, something relatable to me to remember. I am guessing this was okay when the web has surfaced and there were few or no hackers at all, but now things have become different and you can’t make that mistake anymore.
Do not write your password on your phone or in a notebook. Never! One very sure way to keep all your passwords very strong like Q@!$GR(_^TG (which of course is very difficult to guess) is using password managers. Some people don’t trust password managers but let me try and explain how they work;
A password manager is a software or web-based application that is able to suggest and keep very strong passwords for you. What you should know is that you can actually keep all strong password on this application, but have a master password to login it. Think of it as a safe vault. You don’t need to remember all the passwords you use on all platforms, NO. All you need to do is to keep your main vault password strong and be able to remember it. The question you should be asking is which is trustworthy and better? I always recommend LASTPASS. It’s available on all apps stores and as a browser extension.
3. Activate Two-Factor Authentication
This is mostly the most common way of protecting your social media accounts lately. Two-Factor Authentication also known as 2FA means going through two processes of authenticating the login credential of a user. Some platforms use email and other use text message as the second form of authentication. Recently Facebook and other platforms introduced the approved authentication apps process as the second factor. Apps such as Google Authenticator are now used to authenticate users.
The best way to go is to use your phone number. Anytime you login from a new device, you will receive a text containing a unique code for the second authentication process.
Follow this post below to set up your 2FA
How to Setup Two Factor Authentication on Facebook and Instagram
4. Regularly Change Your Password.
When was the last time you have changed the password on any of your Social Media accounts? I am guessing, not quite. Well, as basic as it may seem, changing your password for your account regularly helps protect your account and reduces the risk of being hacked.
I can tell you for a fact that some of us cannot even recollect the password strings we used on Facebook or on Twitter. Since the hackers give themselves no rest until they hack your account, you also must be vigilant if you want to deny them the opportunity of intruding into your privacy.
You can, therefore, schedule the change of your password every three or six months interval and stick to it. You can set a reminder on your mobile devices and once you get the alert, make sure to do it immediately and not put it off. The interval helps in the sense that, hackers try every means possible, laying traps for you to fall in and this concept could take months. One thing a hacker has is patience, and since you are not the only one, they still have a lot of options to always go over until someone falls prey.
5. Do Not Use The Same Password Across Platforms
It is very important that we do not use the same password string on all our various social media accounts. One of the lies we keep in our mind when we use the same password on these platforms is that ‘so it could be easier for me to log in’. There is nothing like that when you are an internet security-conscious perform like me.
Never make the mistake of using the same password throughout your social media accounts or any other very important account. You already know once one is hacked, you probably saved them the hustle of the hacking process for other similar social accounts.
One of the things that eased synchronization on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is the linking of account and cross-platform posting. As much as this is good and easy, it also has its downside. Once a hacker is able to have access to say your Facebook he or she can equally access your Instagram with ease. This leads us to our next point.
6. Avoid Granting Unnecessary Third Party Access
For some people, the above measures are a routine for them and they religiously follow but they may forget the authorization of some not so useful or credible third-party applications and platforms. This is mainly used as a login on other platforms without necessarily going through their account creation process, which may cost you if you fall into the wrong hands.
Do not also be in the habit of login into any kind of device which is not yours. Some even go to the extent of enabling ‘remember password’ options on these devices. Please I know you know it’s not safe, I am just reminding you to desist.
