Identity Theft: Protecting Your Restaurant’s Online Presence

identity theftAs marketing transitions from print to digital, your restaurant finds itself leveraging social media to engage current patrons and bring in new ones along the way.

With that comes the increased risk of identity theft. Recently an owner of several Arlington, VA bars became a victim of identity theft on both Facebook and Twitter. Someone replicated the owner’s personal Facebook page and proceeded to send threatening messages. This caused an onslaught of harassing phone calls and emails to all of the owner’s business locations. Thankfully, the restaurant owner had friends who reported the fraudulent pages and it was swiftly taken down.

However, the wider impact of this story should not be lost. One incident of identity theft can not only affect your business but your reputation in the community you serve going forward.

How to Protect Your Restaurant from Identity Theft

  1. Keep Your Personal Facebook Page Private: Tinker with your personal Facebook settings to sensor information that you don’t want the public to know about you. Use good judgment with cover photos and profile photos you use. Hide yourself from search results. By default, Facebook will be very liberal with your settings.
  2. Change Passwords Often: Change your Facebook password once every three months. The same password needed to login to your personal page is also needed to login into Facebook Business Manager. Don’t use words or phrases that can be easily guessed by hackers.
  3. Claim Your Profile: Claim your profile on social media networks to prevent identity theft. This helps people and social networks differentiate between the real, trademarked brand and the copy-cat. Over the years, Facebook and Twitter have updated their terms of service to curtail cybersquatting.

How to Re-claim Your Business Identity

If you have been hacked, it’s important to report the copy-cat page to the social network and call the local authorities to see how they would recommend handling the situation.

You may also want to contact H&K Insurance to speak about cyber liability coverage. After all, if a hacker can get to your social media networks, what would stop them from going after your patrons’ credit card information next!

Call Brian Kilcoyne at 617-612-6515 or email him at briankilcoyne@hkinsurance.com