How your Facebook account got hacked

I will be narrating the stories behind hacked social media accounts. If you know how it happened, you have a greater chance of preventing it next time, right? I suggest you follow this post and let's discuss the vulnerabilities we all share due to the advent of social media.

Since 2005 when Facebook was founded, it has helped people feel comfort and safety; being in touch, in absentia. Today, there are a lot of vulnerabilities that we share because of the popularity of the social media platforms.

Why will anyone hack my Facebook account?

But because of lack of knowledge, we are careless with our social space, and sometimes, we even allow it to be abused and watered down. Sometimes, we even do some careless things that looks like we handing out our social space into the hands of identity thieves - people who are ready to take the advantages we take for granted.

If companies invest up to $1 per like on Facebook; you don't know that your Facebook account is worth at least $1 times the number of friends you have. That's at least a thousand dollars for most people.

So let me ask you, if a follower on social media is worth $1, how much is your social space worth? Oya (means c’mon in Yoruba), start calculating your Facebook, Twitter, BBM, IG followers and let's share the result.

Facebook is a goldmine

So I heard you say, "my Facebook has never been hacked, God forbid". Knowledge is power my dear. You might also say; "Why would anyone hack my Facebook account? I didn't put money there". It's not your fault! You don't know that your Facebook is a gold mine, do you? Here are a few of the reasons many Facebook account was hacked:

Single Passwords is insecure

You forgot your password a numbered a number of times before, so you went the easy road: using a single password for all sites. The same password for your Facebook, email accounts and every other website you register on. Seem easier to remember one "master" password than having to remember unique password for individual sites, Right? Well, that's no longer a safe thing to do.

Now that's mostly how Facebook get hack nowadays. I will explain how this poses a threat to your social space.  There are a lot of badly built websites out there; such websites are easy prey to hackers seeking unsafe user information. More so, hackers gain unauthorized access to even top sites databases. Some of those websites have your password saved without any encryption.

If you've registered on up to 50 websites, there's a high chance hackers have access to your email and password. If you have signed up on such website with the same e-mail address and password that you use on Facebook, your account will soon be used as a scapegoat.

Email address should have a different password

Do you know how you can safeguard your Facebook account from this kind of attack? This is how to keep your Facebook account from being hacked: use at least two different passwords as a demarcation between your Facebook account, your e-mail account and other others.

Your e-mail account should always have a different password from every other password. Usually, that's enough to have a secure Facebook because hackers can't fully hijack your account without gaining access to your e-mail. But you can take it a step further by using a different password for your Facebook and other popular media.

I explained how to get a strong password here: "10 Cyber Security Tips to guide against fraud"

Devil is posting on your behalf

You were lured to use Facebook or twitter to login to a third-party website. This way, you unknowingly authorized the third-party website, blog or app to post on your behalf. This is actually not a serious case of hacking but it could be serious when they have access to post on your friends wall.

Authorizing third-party blogs or websites to post on your behalf isn't a totally bad idea; so far you trust the website. But it is a bit risky especially if the site gets hacked, the hacker will also have access to post whatever they like on your profile.

This is how porn links and other unauthorized sites make it to your Facebook page.

Stop the hackers from posting to your Facebook profile

How do you secure your social media space from such vulnerabilities? You need to refrain from indiscriminately authorizing third-party blogs, sites or apps to post on your behalf. Most of this app do this automated for you, which you need to go block the access by yourself. So how do you block the access?

Go to "settings" on Facebook on a PC, click on "apps". You can delete all the apps you don't authorize. Was this helpful? Don't you think I deserve another hi5?

You got into a trap – A phishing trap

You received an e-mail message, asking you to do something online. The email appears to come from a legitimate institution; it may even appear to come from Facebook.

They ask you to download a document or click a link. When opened, you are asked to login to your e-mail or social media account. This trick will ship your login information straight to the inbox of hackers.

No matter how hard-to-guess your password is, this way; your password will be displayed to the hacker in plain text - just like your head-teacher views your report card in elementary school. :)

How do you safeguard yourself from this kind of attack? The risk is in clicking links and downloading documents in email messages. It's safe to be suspicious of every message that asks you to click a link or download a message.

It's really hard to explain how to avoid this attack, but I have written "10 Cyber Security Tips to guide against fraud"

Sharing is safety

Now, in the cyberspace, an injury to one is almost an injury to all because you really cannot predict how much impact a cyber attack could have in a social space. So, be generous by sharing this with your friends and families.

Now this is "How your Facebook account got hacked"! Was this helpful? Say hello :) Send a shout-out