Tips to help prevent your Facebook from being Hacked! In Jaymee’s last article about Facebook hacking, she discussed the plans of the hacking group Anonymous to hack Facebook, in this article I present 7 tips to protect yourself from being Facebook hacked. Facebook is now one of, if not the most trolled and targeted websites for hackers and cyber crooks in the world, and with most of us being too trustful for our own good we are easy targets. All it takes is for one ill- informed or misguided decision to occur, and a hacker not only has access to all your personal information, but you have also exposed your friends to the same fate. I don’t know about you, but over the last few months I have noticed a clear increase in the number of spam or malicious looking posts appearing within my Facebook News Feed and on my Wall.
It is rare that a week goes by where I do not encounter at least one suspicious looking link, which has supposably been sent to me from one of my “Facebook friends”. That fact is though, that these links claiming to have come from one of my trusted friends have more than likely originated from a hacker, or some form of hacking software. The hacker has gained unauthorised accessed to my friends Facebook account through the very same or very similar link that they are now “sharing” with me.
When a person’s Facebook account is hacked, it is not just the hackee who should be concerned, but their Facebook friends should also be alarmed as they are now more at risk of being hacked themselves. Once an account has been hacked, the hacker will begin sending out fake Facebook posts containing malicious links, while making it appear as though the victims themselves have posted them. Hackers may also choose to send a Facebook message to the user’s friends via Facebook’s message service or chat feature, suggesting users check out a malicious link.
If a friend is fooled into clicking on one of these malicious links, they are now at risk of not only having their personal Facebook account information stolen, but also any personal, financial or private information they have stored on their personal or work computer. How your account can be hacked? There are many different ways your Facebook account can be “Hacked”. The most malicious and damaging form of hacking occurs through phishing, or when a hacker gains unauthorised access to an account after the user has clicked through to a fake app or link. Once the user has clicked through to the link or app the user will be redirected to a page that looks almost identical to that of Facebook’s login screen. If the user then enters in their username and password without identifying the page as a fake, the hacker will then have complete access to their account.
The hacker is now able to utilise the users account to spread the infection further via their newly acquired friends. Listed below are 7 simple tips to help prevent you from being Facebook hacked: 1. If it looks suspicious, it’s probably is If you don’t like the look of a post, link or App, do not click on in it. Obvious right? Yet people continue to fall into the trap. Most malicious links or Apps will offer you something too good to be true or use statements like “Shocking”, “Embarrassing”, “Unbelievable” or “Check This Out” in an attempt to draw users in to clicking through. If you are in any doubt as to the nature of any posts from a “Friend” do not click on it, there is no point risking being hacked for a cheap thrill. Don’t be a Friend whore.
We all love logging into our Facebook accounts and seeing that we have a new Friend request waiting for our approval. It‘s in our nature to want to make friends, but it’s also in our nature to want to compete with others and to have more Facebook friends than what our real life friends have. It is this need to make as many friends as possible, and to one up our friends that makes many of us willing to accept any friend request, even when we don’t know whom the request is coming from. Hackers, understanding that it’s in our nature and take advantage of a Facebook user’s eagerness to grow their Facebook friends list by sending out a countless number of fake friend requests. They hope to fool the user into accepting at least three of these fake requests.
Don't let your Facebook account be the next victim of Facebook Hackers. How to Tell if Your Facebook Has Been Hacked. The Facebook social networking site encourages you to share personal and professional information with your network of. Photo Credit PhotoObjects.net/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images; You May Also Like. How to Tell if Your Wireless Router Has Been Hacked. How to Tell if Your Wireless. We want to help you keep your account secure. If you think your account was taken over by someone else, we can help you secure it. This process can also help if your. Http:// Have you ever had your Facebook account hacked? Well, it's not a pleasant experience. Your friends are bombarded with emails, they.
Why three you ask? Facebook has measures in place to allow users who lose or forget their Password and secret answer to recover there account with the help of three of their “trusted friends”. To gain access to your account, all a hacker needs to do is pretend that they are you and that they have forgotten your account password and secret answer. Once they have been directed to the Facebook password recovery page they are able to, with the help of the three fake friends you have previously approved, reset your accounts password.
Learn some simple tips that will help you determine is someone else is secretly logging into and using your Facebook account. How to Unblock Someone on Facebook. The fight is over. You hated each other, but now it is time to let each other back into your online lives. Fortunately unblocking. If you've noticed some suspicious activity on your Facebook account--messages you never sent, Wall posts you never published, or Notifications you never. How to Tell if Someone Has Blocked You or Deactivated Their Account on Facebook. Three Methods: Message History Search Engine Reporting a Conversation Questions and.
After a 2. 4 hour freeze out period following the password reset, the hacker is able to have full access to your account. This method of hacking is especially concerning to businesses that may be operating a Facebook account for marketing purposes, as they are more likely to blindly accept Facebook Friend requests in an attempt to increase their reach. This is one reason why businesses should only set- up Facebook fan pages and not personal profiles to promote a business.
Password” is not an acceptable Password. Having a strong password will not prevent your Facebook from being hacked if you have fallen victim to one of the many phishing swindles hackers attempt.
It will however make it incredibly difficult for hackers to gain direct access to your account through less extensive and more primitive hacking techniques. The most primitive technique is simply making a calculated guess of a person password. The users; name, their wife, boyfriend, sibling, pet, birthday or the word password are examples of passwords hackers expect people to use, due to their easy to remember nature. It is recommended that your password contain a mixture of letters, digits, punctuation and both capital and lowercase letters. It is also recommended that your password be at least 6 characters long, however the more characters in your password the belter. If you are afraid that you may forget your password, write it down and hide it in a safe place.
I would also suggest that you change your password on a regular basis. Always check the URLThe aim of phishing is to get the user to unknowingly share their Facebook login details with the hacker. The most common way hackers achieve this is, is by tricking the user into entering their Facebook details into a fake Facebook login page. These fake login pages are usually a near perfect copy of Facebook’s actual login page.
A fake login page will usually appear after you have already logged into Facebook via the real login screen, and are usually prompted after you have clicked on a malicious link or application. A clear indication of a fake login page is found within the URL of the page. Although hackers can make exact copies of the actual login page, they are unable to use the same URL. Whenever you login too, or are asked to re- login to Facebook, you should always make sure that the URL is www.
Facebook. com. A common way hackers deceive people is by having a URL that may appear to be the same but is in fact slightly different. For Example: www. Faccbook. com or www. FBook. com. 5. Don’t grant permission to unknown or suspicious Applications One of the most popular features within Facebook is Applications. To be able to use, or access most applications you are required to grant access to the application to use some of your personal information and to promote the group via your wall. Most applications that ask for access are trustworthy and genuinely need access to your information, but there are some Apps out there that are designed specifically to exploit the access you give them.
If you receive a “Request for Permission” from a Facebook App you should always ensure that the page asking for access is reputable, and is coming for a person or company you trust. Much like my first tip, if it looks suspicious, just don’t risk it. Beware the “Smart Phone” It is becoming increasingly more popular for Facebook users to access their accounts via their mobile phones, with many mobile phone service providers even offering free access to Facebook as part of their service. Although smart phones and free access makes it easier for users to check their Facebook accounts it may also be making it easier for hackers to hack their accounts. In many countries, the network signal provided by service providers is not encrypted, so hackers have the ability to access the data that flows between the mobile and mobile operator with relative ease.
They can gain access to all of the information that the user is sending out and is receiving. My tip is to always check to see if you service provider offers an encrypted network signal. Enable Secure Browsing. In my final tip, Facebook now allows its users to put their Facebook Profile in a type of safe mode. Putting your Facebook in to this safe mode means that the information that is transferred between you and Facebook is now encrypted, meaning hackers are unable to easily intercept the information being sent and received. The safe mode is a HTTPS Secure Connection, a type of connection financial, ecommerce, banking etc sites use to protect their most sensitive information.
Secure browsing is not a default setting, so users have to enable it themselves. To enable secure browsing on your Facebook account follow these steps: Log into your Facebook account > Choose “Account Settings” from the “Account” menu> Select “Account Security” and select “change”> Ensure there is a tick next to the “Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible” option > Click “Save”. I would also recommend that while enabling Secure browsing you select “Send me an Email” under “When a new computer or mobile logs into this account”.
How to Tell If Someone Has Hacked Into Your Wireless Internet. Determine your own IP address, so you know what address is yours and what address is that of a stranger stealing your Internet connection. To find out your IP address, select the "Start" button and then search for "Run" in the search box.
Open the "Run" application. Type in "cmd" then press the "OK" button. Type in "ipconfig" when the program opens and hit "Enter." Make note of the number besides "IPv.
Address." This is your own IP address and if your wireless is secure, there should be no foreign addresses in your log. Enter the IP address of your router into your Internet browser window and hit "Enter." The IP address of your router is located in the same place you found your IP address, beside the heading "Default Gateway."Log into your router using your username and password. You will either use the name and password set as default, or your current wireless name and password. This will bring you into the configuration page for your specific router. Look for an "Administration tab" - - all routers will be different, so look for similar settings for your device. Open the "Log" to view the IP addresses that are logging into your Internet.
Check the log for any instances where strange IP addresses are logging in. If your log was turned off, enable it so it will track all incoming IP addresses.