{"id":10757,"date":"2025-06-25T14:03:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T14:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nebrcentre.co.uk\/?p=10757"},"modified":"2025-06-25T14:03:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T14:03:04","slug":"are-your-social-posts-fuelling-cyber-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/northeastcrc\/are-your-social-posts-fuelling-cyber-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Your Social Posts Fuelling Cyber-Scams?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all share online, whether it be birthdays, holiday photos, even our pets\u2019 names – without a second thought. But that \u201charmless\u201d detail could hand cyber-criminals exactly what they need.<\/p>\n

What is Social Engineering?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Social engineering targets people, not computers. Attackers exploit trust and urgency, posing as someone you know or crafting realistic scenarios that pressure you into clicking a link, revealing a password, or transferring money.<\/p>\n

How Hackers Mine Social Media<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Tactic<\/strong><\/td>\nHow It Works<\/strong><\/td>\nExample<\/strong><\/td>\nQuick Fix<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Password & Security Question Guessing<\/strong><\/td>\nPersonal details (pet, birthday, team) become password fodder.<\/td>\nYour dog \u201cMilo\u201d + birthday 07\/09 \u2192 \u201cMilo709\u201d.<\/td>\nNever use real answers; use three random words.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Impersonation<\/strong><\/td>\nScammers mimic your tone and timing.<\/td>\nAfter your \u201cBarcelona!\u201d post, your mum gets a message:\u00a0\u201cHelp my phones stolen – need \u00a3500\u201d.<\/em><\/td>\nConfirm urgent requests by phone or video. Limit your social media visibility to trusted friends and family only.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Spear Phishing<\/strong><\/td>\nPosts reveal what’s timely for you.<\/td>\nAfter you tweet about a conference, an “HR Update” email arrives.<\/td>\nHover-check links; don’t open attachments, verify with the sender and or your IT expert first.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Five Ways to Share Smarter<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pause Before You Post<\/strong>
Ask: could this help guess a password or craft a scam?<\/p>\n

Lock Down Privacy Settings<\/strong>
Keep accounts private and prune followers you don\u2019t recognise.<\/p>\n

Use 3 Random Word Passwords<\/strong>
Let a password manager create and store them.<\/p>\n

Enable Two-Factor Authentication (MFA)<\/strong>
An extra authentication step adds a huge amount of security to your account with very little effort.<\/p>\n

Verify the Unexpected<\/strong>
Urgent message? Switch channels\u2014 -call, text, or video – to confirm.<\/p>\n

Stay Ahead of Social Engineering Attacks with NEBRC.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the\u00a0North East Business Resilience Centre, we help businesses strengthen their defences against cyber threats – including social engineering attacks that start with a simple scroll through social media.<\/p>\n

Our Security Awareness Training<\/a> can\u00a0help you and your team spot the signs early and avoid falling victim.Want to become more cyber aware?<\/p>\n

Sign up to our free Core Membership\u00a0<\/a>for updates, expert advice, and access to tools that help keep your business safe online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all share online, whether it be birthdays, holiday photos, even our pets\u2019 names – without a second thought. But that \u201charmless\u201d detail could hand…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/northeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/northeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/northeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/northeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/northeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/northeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/northeastcrc\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/northeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/northeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/northeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}