An Information Technology expert, Mr Oluwamayowa Oshidero, has urged Nigerians to set up security measures on their various social media platforms to check the recent increase in cases of cyber hacking.
He made the plea in Ibadan on Monday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) while reacting to the spate of cyber hacking on social media applications.
Oshidero, the Founder of Equilibrium Zone and Managing Partner, TinklingD, said hackers were perfecting their skills daily the same way apps developers were evolving security measures to ensure safety on social media platforms.
He linked the rise in cases of cyber hacking to the use of social media platforms as people’s primary communication platforms.
Oshidero said: “Social media platforms are becoming our basic primary and basic communication platforms; in time past hackers targeted banks mainly.
“But since banks have moved to social media whereby you can open an account through WhatsApp, the hackers know that if they can get access to people’s WhatsApp account you can get access to their bank account and everything else.”
The IT expert said that since businesses had moved online, hackers are aware that if they hack people’s social media accounts they could access their details.
He urged people to pay attention to the security measures the developers of apps have put in place to mitigate the activities of cyber hackers.
“For instance, WhatsApp has a feature called ‘Two-Step Verification’ whereby the company reaches out to me if someone is trying to get access to my WhatsApp through sending authentication code to my own number before I can authorize access.
“Then, there are new privacy settings for WhatsApp that if you can activate it nobody can add you to any group without your permission, so you can decide what group to join.
“So everybody should consciously look at the privacy measures that the developers of the social media platforms have put in place.
“You can set it up on Google, Facebook and other platforms,” he said. (NAN)
