Online Threats and Security in Social Media Messengers

Messengers are so deeply integrated into our daily lives that they have become an integral part of them. Modern etiquette instructs us not to call but first to clarify in the messenger when and how it is convenient for the person to speak. 

In the chats, we discuss personal and work issues, spending a significant part of our day chatting. At the same time, security frontiers are becoming more and more illusory. It is because via messaging, we share tons of information, which can be profoundly personal or relate to your job. 

We would not recommend trusting confidential information to your messengers. Many popular messengers can be spied on or hacked. With the development of modern IT technologies and existing apps, it is not a difficult task nowadays. It is enough to enter in your search engine the request how can I spy on Facebook messenger for free and you will receive dozens of results with the requested information. Information leakage is widespread nowadays and is often used against you. That is why it is necessary to know how to avoid negative consequences when using messengers. 

Which Messengers to Choose

There are dozens of available messengers, which are mainly free for the customers and enjoy significant popularity in different countries. Each country has a messenger that is the most popular among its citizens. In the United States, Facebook Messenger is the most popular. Telegram and Viber are extremely popular in Eastern Europe.

We-Chat is popular in China. WhatsApp is the second-largest messenger worldwide. Each of them has its advantages and disadvantages in terms of communication means. But you should choose that one which offers trustful security measures. We would recommend those that provide a unique encryption technology for secret chats.

In such a way, you will be sure that scammers will not be able to penetrate your chats and steal any secret information. Such apps use end-to-end encryption when all messages are encrypted on the sender’s gadget and decrypted on the recipient’s gadget. This technology is implemented only for secret chats, and ordinary messages can theoretically be intercepted. That is why I prefer those with significant security measures before choosing a messenger for chats. 

What Should I Do To Secure Myself?

With the development of various security measures, the number of means to break the security means is also increased. That is why users should not only rely on the system but think about their certain behaviour by themselves. Here are some basic recommendations of now to chat securely:

• Do not chat with persons you do not know. They may represent themselves as officials or entrepreneurs with “interesting” offers. But their primary aim will be to find out some secret information about you. In the majority of cases, it will be financial information.
• Do not follow suspicious links shared by a third person. Sometimes, you may receive messages from a person you do not know. If they contain some links, do not follow them because this action may help them steal your information. 
• Never share private and especially nude photos in chats. Even if you do it in communication with your loved one or a person you perfectly know, earlier or later, they may use this material against you (but it’s not a hypothesis). If you want to share some photo or video material, do it via secret chats. There, the information will be deleted after a certain time, and it is impossible to do screenshots. 
• Check communities to which you were invited. If you notice that you were invited to suspicious groups, or your known group has changed the topic and the owner, it is better to leave such group because their aim can be to steal your data. 

Final Words

No matter what secret or reliable messengers you use, there is always a risk of being overheard. No developer guarantees the secrecy of encrypted messages with the latest technology if the information is transmitted using a microphone or smartphone camera. The intelligence services of many countries have learned to bypass obstacles by secretly connecting to the microphone and video camera of the gadget and thus receive the necessary information. Using reliable messengers with secret chats will help protect yourself as much as possible.