MONTREAL – Simply using social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram can put your personal information at risk, says CTV digital analyst Elias Makos.
It’s a scam called social engineering -- psychologically manipulating people and convincing them to divulge confidential information.
“As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, right?” Makos, host of the Elias Makos Show on CJAD, told CTV News Montreal anchor Mutsumi Takahashi on Wednesday.
Makos explains that, as an experiment, a CNN journalist recently asked a so-called “ethical” hacker to scam him.
“Just, very simply going to this journalist’s Instagram, seeing a post about a hotel, picking up the phone and calling the hotel,” he said.
“She [the hacker] says, ‘Oh, I’m so-and-so’s wife, we’re staying at this hotel, I can’t reach him, I don’t know his cellphone number… Can you please help me?”
And it worked.
Watch the video above to find out if you’re oversharing on social media – and if your personal data is in danger because of it.
