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Nexgate Releases Guide on How to Stop Social Media Hacks
[April 14, 2014]

Nexgate Releases Guide on How to Stop Social Media Hacks


(Marketwire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 04/14/14 -- Nexgate, an innovator in social media brand protection and compliance, today announced the release of a first-of-its-kind Guide on How to Stop Social Media Account Hacks to help enterprise brands and their social media teams prevent and respond to social media account hacks. Read the Guide at nx.gt/StopSocialHacks.



Despite the efforts by social networks like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others to enact greater security within their platforms, account hacks are increasing in frequency and severity (see interactive chart). Groups like the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) are targeting brands via social media, and recently unearthed vulnerabilities such as Heartbleed put social media accounts at risk.

Already this year, Microsoft/Skype, Forbes, Snapchat and even Justin Bieber have been the victims of hacked Facebook and Twitter accounts, as hackers have hijacked their millions of followers and fans to deface the brand and garner attention for their cause.


"The average enterprise has more than 300 social media accounts and 6 connected applications, creating a complicated network of branded infrastructure rich with vulnerabilities and yet, little-to-no security technology or procedures," said Devin Redmond, Co-founder & CEO at Nexgate. "As this social universe continues to rapidly expand, brands need to know how to protect their investment in social media." Nexgate's Guide on How to Stop Social Media Account Hacks and interactive site detail common techniques used by hackers to infiltrate social media accounts, such as phishing attacks, browser and cookie attacks, and taking advantage of poorly maintained passwords. To help provide value to social media practitioners and IT professionals, it also provides steps that organizations can take to combat these hacking strategies and reduce risk, as well as guidance on what can be done in the event that a hack occurs.

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA PROFESSIONALS CAN DO Mitigating risk of social media hacks requires a complement of security controls -- much like for corporate networks, which have firewalls, intrusion detection, spam filters, etc., but that are designed specifically for the social networks.

To help organizations prevent and address social media hacks, Nexgate's new guide prescribes several steps brands can take, including: Finding all of your brand's social media accounts, including fraudulent pages; Limiting access to accounts from users and third-party applications; Enforcing strong authentication controls for social media accounts and applications; Monitoring branded social media accounts for changes, unauthorized apps, admins, and content; and Enforcing policy, including automated account lock-down procedures.

"As hacking methods become increasingly more sophisticated, organizations have struggled to protect their social media investment and stop hackers from overtaking their accounts. At the same time, these brands are increasingly being held responsible by customers, fans and in some cases regulators for issues arising from these security flaws," said Redmond. "Nexgate's new guide addresses this pain point by demystifying social media hacks and providing organizations with a useful, step-by-step process to protect enterprise social media and ultimately the value of their brands." Resources Guide on How to Stop Social Media Account Hacks Interactive Site with History of Account Hacks Video Demo of Nexgate ProfileLockAbout Nexgate Nexgate provides cloud-based protection and compliance for enterprise social media accounts. Its patent-pending technology seamlessly integrates with the leading social media platforms and applications to find and audit brand affiliated accounts, control connected applications, detect and remediate compliance risks, archive communications, and detect fraud and account hacking.

Nexgate is based in San Francisco, California, and is used by some of the world's largest financial services, pharmaceutical, Internet security, manufacturing, media, and retail organizations to discover, audit, and protect their social infrastructure.

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