{"id":10350,"date":"2022-06-27T18:31:03","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T18:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shrm.org\/resourcesandtools\/hr-topics\/technology\/pages\/7-tips-to-verify-your-social-media-connections.aspx"},"modified":"2022-06-27T18:31:03","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T18:31:03","slug":"7-tips-to-verify-your-social-media-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/squarehrwired.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/27\/7-tips-to-verify-your-social-media-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Tips to Verify Your Social Media Connections"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

?<\/span>S<\/span>HRM has partnered with <\/em>Security Management Magazine<\/em><\/a> to bring you relevant articles on key workplace topics and strategies.<\/em><\/p>\n

I<\/span>n the fast-paced world of social media networking, it can be easy to click “accept” on most friend and connection requests. However, taking a bit of extra time to verify that the proposed connection is who they say they are pays off when protecting your fledgling personal brand. <\/p>\n

Peter Warmka, founder of the Counterintelligence Institute in Orlando, warns that malicious actors are more than willing to take advantage of an employee’s desire to network and boost their professional reputation. They will use social engineering to gain additional insights and information about their target, craft a campaign and launch a spearphishing initiative aimed at exploiting a person’s vulnerabilities, traits and motivations. In addition, Warmka warned that social media messaging platforms are even more effective than email in landing a spearphishing campaign.<\/p>\n

Social media platforms have added benefits that lend malicious actors some credibility at a glance. For instance, they allow people to build fake profiles that share things in common with the target, and the photos and credentials in the profile can trick users into believing the direct message they received is genuinely from a fellow professional.<\/p>\n

The goal of connecting could be to access the employee’s network or collect dirt on him or her for cyberextortion, Warmka said. The malicious actor could be trying to gain access to credentials or implant malicious code in the user’s device. In some cases, bad actors could be trying to get a better picture of the user’s location or schedule so they could launch a physical attack.<\/p>\n

To reduce malicious actors’ access to your information, Warmka recommended switching around the classic intelligence phrase “Trust, but verify” to a more apt “Verify, then trust.”<\/p>\n

When assessing users’ profiles to verify their authenticity, Warmka had a few tips:<\/p>\n