Learn From Experts on How to Protect Your TikTok Account
TikTok has around 800 million active users and is considered to be one of the fastest growing social media platforms in the world. What separates it from social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook is that it allows users to express themselves by creating and sharing short videos. As fun as they can be, the problem with social media platforms is that they attract cybercriminals. That is because a successful attack can reward hackers with victims’ personal and sensitive data that could be used for identity theft and other cybercrimes. Thus, due to TikTok’s popularity, we believe it is time to talk about how to protect its accounts. Recently, Kaspersky cybersecurity specialists presented a list of tips of what users ought to do if they want to be safe while using TikTok.
The need to strengthen your TikTok account might be greater than you imagine. Less than a month ago two cybersecurity specialists found a weakness in the TikTok app. It is said that this vulnerability can be misused to take over accounts and post videos that could be malicious or promote fake information. For example, the researchers were able to access the World Health Organization’s TikTok account and post a video with false information about the COVID-19 virus. Of course, the experts made sure that no one would see their fake video.
No one can be certain that the social media platform does not have any other weaknesses. After all, cybercriminals can get very creative and are always in search of new ways to scam users or hack their accounts. Therefore, making sure that your account is as safe as possible should be your number one goal if you care about your virtual safety. In this article, we discuss the tips that we believe might be the most useful as they could help you protect your account from hackers. If you are curious, we invite you to read the rest of this blog post.
How to protect your TikTok account from cybercriminals?
Set up a strong TikTok password
Your account’s password can be the only thing that stands between your personal information and hackers. Therefore, it is vital to make your TikTok password as strong as possible. You might have already heard that a strong password should be complex, which means it ought to contain both lower-case and upper-case letters, symbols, and numbers. Plus, it is best if the combination is completely random. In other words, using your pet’s name, popular phrases, locations, and other data that hackers might think of or find out is a terrible idea. You may have also heard that nowadays cybersecurity specialists say that passwords ought to be longer than twelve characters. Thus, the length of your TikTok password is just as important as the characters used to create it.
Disable TikTok password saving
The social media platform remembers users’ login names and passwords by default. As a result, users can access their accounts faster. Unfortunately, while such functionality can make things easier, it also places your account at risk because anyone who might take your device could also access your account without having to crack your TikTok password first. If you are afraid that you might forget your new complex TikTok password, we recommend getting a tool like Cyclonis Password Manager that could memorize it for you. This application keeps your passwords safe in an encrypted vault. To find out more about the benefits that our password manager can offer, continue reading here.
Enable Tiktok verification code text message
It might sound surprising, but TikTok does not offer Two-Factor authentication, which adds a second layer of protection. Instead, the social media platform lets you replace your password with the Tiktok verification code text message. In other words, you can log into your account without your TikTok password. Instead, you can enter a special code sent to your mobile phone. It is not the safest option as there are ways to intercept text messages as well as trick users into revealing verification codes. However, the Tiktok verification code text message might help you get the control of your account back if anyone hacks it and changes your password.
Make your TikTok profile private
Doing this can lessen the chances that you will appear under the hackers’ radar because if you make your account private, your friends and current subscribers will be the only ones who could see your videos. Also, a private account might make it more difficult for scammers or hackers to approach you. Thus, if you do not want to become popular and want to share videos only with your friends, it is advisable to make your profile private. Additionally, it would be a good idea to make sure that no one besides your friends could write you messages, which you can do if you go to the TikTok app settings and select Friends under the Who can send you messages setting. This can help you get rid of spam as well as messages from hackers.
Check if anyone is logged into your TikTok account
Like Facebook and many other platforms, TikTok allows seeing the list of devices on which you are logged in. Naturally, if someone hacks our account, you could notice unknown devices in your list. In such a case, we highly recommend logging out of such gadgets. You can do so if you go to the TikTok app settings, tap Manage devices, and then click Remove next to devices that you do not recognize. This feature can also be handy when you forget to log out from gadgets of your friends or devices that no longer belong to you. Of course, you should change your password as soon as you log out from unknown devices.
To conclude, TikTok might not have safety features like Two-Factor authentication, but there are still ways to keep your account safe or regain it if it ever gets hacked. If TikTok is not the only social media platform that you are using, we highly recommend finding out how to secure them as well if you want to ensure your virtual security. If you check our previous blog posts, you can learn how to protect your Facebook or Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and many other accounts.
