Safeguard Your Facebook Account From Hackers: A Basic Guide

Since its launch in 2004, Facebook has drawn more than seven hundred and fifty million active users (and their fair share of bumps and bruises over its privacy policies). Facebook provides unsupecting users many opportunities to reveal their private details unintentionally, making this particular networking site a perfect target for hackers. Adopting intense hacking prevention techniques can help to keep your information protected and your Facebook profile completely under their radar.

For a hacker who is familiar with Facebook and all of its aspects, accessing personal information takes just a few mouse clicks. Based on the information visible on peoples’ profiles — for instance your friends, family and colleagues, and their friends and coworkers — someone with enough knowledge can easily find your physical address, email address, family names, cv and even personal contact number(s). If hackers obtain this details, these folks may eventually acquire your identity. The following are a few of the steps you can take to secure the data on your Facebook account:

First, only add contacts you know. Generally, there is a trend on Facebook to gather as many friends as possible, but men and women who do this poses a very minimal idea (or no idea) about who the person is on their friends list. Some of those might not really be real people, but rather phishing pages that are trying to gather information about you. Acknowledging the invite could permit a hacker to reach one’s account. Check out your contacts/friends list periodically to make sure you have not added anyone you don’t know accidentally, and that the users who have visibility to your account are the individuals YOU desire to give access too.

Avoiding a ‘hack’ requires vigilance… always verify hyperlinks before you clicking on them! If the link appears to be a strange URL or it’s ‘out of character’ for the person whom sent it to you, DON’T CLICK ON IT! When a hacker obtains access to a profile, often times they may upload harmful code (links) that replicates themselves by posting on your Facebook wall. Once your friends push that hyperlink, it duplicates the procedure.

A good example of this is sometimes hackers use outside links to connect you to ‘Facebook.’ These pages are ‘dummy’ or ‘duplicate’ pages that report any information entered into it back to the hacker… in other words, once you enter your password and username and press Enter on your keyboard, the hacker has your legitimate login info… and generally at that point, the fake page does not take you anywhere, rather it appears as if the page is unresponsive to your input. So, whenever you are in doubt, visit the website directly and not through other means (links via email or other websites).

Furthermore, it is paramount to upgrade your web browser when new versions are available. This way the system can keep antivirus, spam protection and other security features up-to-date. This will work to improve one’s protection and keep not only your Facebook profile secure, but additionally the other applications you may use. Update and run anti-virus software on your computer on a regular basis. Whenever you use the internet, your PC becomes vulnerable and open to dangerous users. Executing a malware scan on one’s computer system frequently can minimize one’s exposure and enhance your hack-protection capability.

Password strength is the ideal measure of your hack prevention plan. Choose or think of a security password containing at least eight characters (but more is always better) and that uses a combination of letters, numbers and symbols. Refrain from using common, everyday words or phrases — like a birth date or your first or favorite pet’s name or other effortlessly distinguished information — and avoid words that can be found in the Oxford or any other dictionary.

Always make use of your common sense. Facebook has security measures that aid you in account protection. Lookup Facebook’s Help Center to find all of them. Secure browsing via HTTPS is a feature that encrypts one’s traffic prior to posting it on the web. We can tell if this feature is enabled by the server by checking the URL (or web address) in your browser’s address bar. If the address begins with ‘https‘ instead of ‘http,’ then the traffic between you and the site is encrypted. Many third party plugins and apps do not assist this element.

Login alerts can help you determine if anyone else has utilized or used your profile. This feature notifies you whenever your account is used from a new device or computer. A variation of this element is called login approvals (aka 2-factor authentication). This sends a code to your cellular device whenever the profile is being accessed from a new, unrecognized device or computer that you must enter to proceed with logging in.

In case you need to reach your profile from a public computer in a public library or on a college or university campus or another public place, you can ask a one time security password from Facebook by sending text messages to Facebook. The security password is uniquely generated and is valid for only a few minutes. Utilizing this safety measure is one VERY GOOD step in keeping your account secure.

In summation, using a few simple steps to secure your account can make one’s Facebook experience more pleasant and virtually stress free. Take the opportunity to understand the privacy and protection features the website offers and protect yourself and others from stalkers and hackers.

SOURCE: CyberWarZone

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