How to protect yourself from cybercrime on social media

Prof. Sylvia Papadopoulos , co-editor of Van Schaik Publishers’ textbook Cyberlaw@SA: the law of the internet in SA and Associate Professor in Private Law at the University of Pretoria was recently interviewed on Radio 702 ’s Consumer Rights Feature to discuss the scourge of cybercrime on social media. Wendy Knowler and Relebogile Mabotja tapped into Papadopoulos’s expertise to find out how consumers can protect themselves.

Those of you interested in food and hospitality may know that well-known celebrity chef Pete Goffe-Wood’s Instagram account was hacked in 2023. Goffe-Wood describes how he received a direct message from a friend on Instagram requesting that he subscribes to the friend’s new online store by clicking on a link. Within minutes, he lost access to his Instagram account; subsequently, he lost most of his 14 000 followers and an important aspect of his social media presence, which ultimately impacted his business negatively.

In the radio interview, Prof. Papadopoulos explained that South Africa is one of the top 10 countries plagued by hacking. She advised that social media users protect themselves in several ways:

1. Ensure all social media accounts are properly set up with Two-Factor Authentication.
2. Ensure passwords are strong (include special characters, capital letters, lower case letters, non-sequential alpha-numeric characters, etc.).
3. Use different passwords for different accounts.
4. Be careful of providing personal information to third-party applications that appear harmless.
5. If you receive a message from anyone requesting you to do something, be suspicious. Validate their request through another communication channel. For example, if you receive a message on Instagram, confirm the request through a voice call.
6. Report incidences of cybercrime to the police. South African Law (e.g. the Cybercrimes Act and the Protection of Personal Information Act – POPIA) protects its citizens and should be enforced where relevant.

Knowler Knows: Celebrity chef hacked. (primediaplus.com)

If you’d like to find out more about the field of Cyberlaw, visit your nearest academic bookstore to purchase a copy of Cyberlaw@SA: the law of the internet in SA, 4th edition.

Book information: https://www.vanschaiknet.com/book/view/525

If you’re a lecturer and would like to consider prescribing Cyberlaw for your course, please contact Sibusiso Mthimunye .

Email: [email protected]