How to protect your accounts in messengers: Ukrainians are given advice
26 July 2024 22:04
Ukrainians who use popular messengers face cyber security threats every day. This includes phishing messages, cyber espionage, identity theft and access to the history of correspondence. "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to The Ministry of Justice tells us how to avoid trouble.
Signal messenger
Ukrainians are advised to periodically check other active Signal account sessions and close suspicious or unknown ones. You can do this by clicking on the account icon and going to the “Linked devices” section.
In the Privacy menu, it is also important to enable the options “Hide screen in app switcher”, “Lock screen” and set the delay for locking the screen to 1 minute. In addition, for IOS users, it is recommended to disable the “Show calls” option in the “Recent” section.
In the Account menu item, you should enable the Registration blocking option to prevent the number from being used to re-register your Signal account and access messages.
If you receive a message from an unknown number with a file or link, cybersecurity experts recommend not opening the file, saving it to your device, or clicking on suspicious links.
WhatsApp messenger
To use WhatsApp safely, you need to set up two-factor authentication. To do this, go to Settings and the Account menu. When you go to the “Two-Step Verification” menu, follow the prompts of the application and set up two-factor authentication (two-factor authentication).
Additionally, you should periodically check the devices on which your WhatsApp account is authorised in the Connected Devices menu, as well as in the Account menu by going to the Security section.
If you receive a message from an unknown number with a file or link, users are strongly advised not to open the file, save it to your device, or follow suspicious links.
Telegram messenger
You should also set up two-factor authentication in the specified messenger. You can do this as follows:
- go to the “Settings” section in the settings;
- in the “Privacy and Security” menu, select the “Two-step verification” option;
- set a password;
- specify the email address for its recovery.
Users are advised to choose a complex password (more than 8 characters, uppercase and lowercase letters, symbols, numbers) and not to repeat passwords used in other messengers or online accounts.
Ukrainians are advised to periodically check the “Devices” menu for unknown smartphones, laptops, tablets or desktop computers that could be used by attackers to log into their accounts.
It is also recommended to disable media auto-uploading in the Data and Storage menu, both via the mobile network and Wi-Fi.
