Host: Stacy Mandock
Stacy Mandock provides support to the Risk Mitigation team as the program director. With the purpose of providing the safest possible experience for travelers both foreign and domestic, Stacy assists in doing the initial research for travel destinations and identifying potential concerns and/or risks before and during travel. Her specialty is working with collegiate travelers and ensuring that they’re thoroughly prepared before travel as well as tracking potential risks or threats throughout their trips.
Guest: Cliff Wilson
Cliff Wilson is Customer Success Account Manager and cybersecurity enthusiast at Microsoft and cybersecurity Subject Matter Expert with Army Special Operations. Over the past 10 years, Cliff's experience as an IT and cybersecurity expert has allowed him to hold positions with Microsoft and 20th Special Forces Group as a security expert. Cliff was one of the first people in the Special Operations community to utilize Cyber authorities for cyber related missions within the Army. Cliff spends the majority of his time supporting federal groups at Microsoft, but his passion for security motivates and drives him to helping customers and others be successful.
On this topic: Cliff takes us through some Do’s and Don'ts of digital presence on social media. Popular platforms are so easy to use and very popular, but are constantly changing and making really good money off of our data and habits while we’re scrolling. There are ways to control how much of your information is being tracked or used and that’s what we’re digging into on this podcast. Follow along checklist included below as Cliff talks us through this.
In this podcast you will learn more about:
Some Do’s and Don'ts of social media
How and why social media is using user data
How users can better control what of their information is being used or tracked
Better controlling what’s publically available
Key takeaways:
Cliff walks us through where to go and what to check for in the security section of a couple of the most popular social media platforms.
Social Media Follow Along Checklist:
Do’s
Review your connections and friends/follows on a routine basis.
Make sure you know who are you connecting with online.
If unsure of a friend request, text or call the person to see if the profile approaching you is really them.
Go into your Settings & Privacy Center and read up on what Facebook and Meta does with all your data.
Under “Help & support” → “Terms & Policies”
Don’ts
Never click links shared by profiles aren’t 100% confirmed friends.
Expose personal information on posts, in pictures.
Examples: pictures of the exterior of your house, exposing where you live, information from inside your house, anything that can be used against you.
Example: don’t post a picture of your pet with its name, especially if it’s a security question for any of your accounts.
Facebook Follow Along Checklist
Settings:
“Audience and Visibility” section should be reviewed to ensure friends only.
Check the settings for “Posts”, “Stories”, “Reels” and all content to ensure only friends can view that information.
“Profile and Tagging” section you can select review tags and posts before adding to timeline when someone tags you.
Your Activity:
Check “Activity Log”. This is kind of like a reality check to show you all the info that is tracked by Facebook and Meta. Then if you read the privacy policy, you can see how they use all of that information about you.
Your Information:
“Access Your Information” - recommend going through all these and cleaning up this info. Never put out more information than is needed.
“Connections”
“Logged Information”
“Security and Login Information”
“Apps and Websites Off of Facebook”.
Sections in the “Account Center”
“Password and Security” section. Change your password and set up MFA.
“Ad Preferences” → “Ad Settings”
“Activity Information from Ad Partners”
“Categories used to reach you”
“Social Interactions”
“Ads shown outside of Meta”.
Instagram Follow Along Checklist
Very similar, as it is also owned by Meta.
First recommendation: change your profile to a private account. Under “Settings”, you can change that under “Account Privacy”.
“Tags” and “Mentions” section in the “Settings and Privacy” section. Same thing from Facebook. Recommend manually approving those and only allowing mentions from people you follow.
Also recommend not allowing people to “Boost” their stories by mentioning you, which turns it into an Ad.
“Account Center” go to the “Password and Security” area, recommend using MFA, a good password, and you can also check out the saved logins and where you have been logged in. You can also set login alerts, which will notify you when unrecognized devices try to login to your profile, highly recommend that.
Next is the “Your information and permissions” section.
“Your off meta technologies” disconnect or delete everything that uses your information, which is under the “Specific activity” area. You can also unlink any ad partners in that section.
“Ad preferences” section, select to not let Meta use your data for targeted advertising.