Understanding the possibilities through which Facebook accounts are being hacked and Tips to secure them.

Security from time immemorial has always been an issue of great concern. No wonder companies protect their environments and particularly their properties which could either be tangible or intangible by every means possible. However, as time unfolds more and more security threats and techniques are being developed by malicious people to target people and properties. It is even more dangerous with regards to online affairs as the internet provides great chances for security breaches. Concentrating on social media, it getting common to hear people complain of hacked accounts especially those on the Facebook platform. A majority of people tend to complain of the laxity in facebooks security policies. However, having analyzed the whole situation, I can say over 85% of hacks are not from an online breach such as a brute force breaking of passwords, etc. but most often these account hacks result from little things we tend to neglect. Before a hacker ventures an account or targets an individual, he or she must have in one way or another, directly or indirectly have had some dealings or some degree information about the target or the victims involved. so in this light, Facebook is not solely to be blamed. About passwords, every SAAS company tries as much as possible to make it obligatory for users to set up passwords that comprise of upper and lowercase letters, Numeric as well as alternate characters and signs such as $%&*^@, etc. A combination of all these which is always required to be at least 8 characters in length gives hackers a tough time to break. the longer the password, the more difficult and impossible for them to break. So how do they manage to get control of your Facebook account despite the strength of the password? You will find out that below. the figure illustrates the different times and durations it takes for a hacker to break a password. Image courtesy from Qusai Alhadddad, Cyber Security Consultant.

In this article, you will learn the possible basic means through which malicious people tend to gain access to a Facebook account. you will also learn why malicious people break into accounts and finally, you will learn the simplest trick to secure your Facebook account and of course other social media platforms.

Why Malicious people break into Facebook accounts?

The very first reason is to get people such as your friends and relations believe it is You who is using the account thereby stealing or looking for means of extorting money. Sometimes the hacker will bring up framed stories of being caught somewhere and needs quick financial assistance. 

They may want to steal your reputation in order to demand some ransom or gain some valuable information from those you relate with be it professional relationships or relatives and worst still, they may just want to ruin your reputation by posting irrelevant or explicit materials using your account details

How malicious people could possibly gain access to your account?

When people's accounts are been hacked on Facebook, they only think the malicious person must have used a brute force means but the truth is the fault is possibly ours since we turn to underlook the nitty-gritty which soon becomes the nightmare that ruins our lives. keep in Never trust whoever you share your devices with. One single against one's privacy can lead to a gross scandal.

UNCLEARED BROWSER CACHE MEMORY:

Cache memory stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster, the data stored in a cache is as a result of an earlier computation. Browser cache keeps tracks of the sites you visited. Once you visit a site such as Facebook. the browser cache keeps tracks of it all, Now if another person uses that computer and visits the same sites you did such as Facebook, they can easily gain access into your Facebook accounts or other accounts. so it is advisable to quickly clear your browser cache when you finish browsing, in this way, it is hard to tracing your online affairs.

THROUGH REMEMBER ME

Secondly, When you sign into Facebook using Chrome, if it's your first time, your Chrome browser will ask you to check to remember me during my next login, never do that. If that laptop is used by another person, the browser will remember the last login and will pick up from there automatically assuming it's you. and that will grant them access to your account. They may change your password.

Before selling your phone or PC to another person, ensure you reset /format it else that person will have access to your social media accounts. Since mobile apps automatically support quick sign in. They don't need to verify your authentication again. If you have already set up a Facebook app on your phone. if that phone is stolen. the malicious person will gain easy access to your account assuming there is no phone security authentication such as fingerprint or pin code. Never assume anyone is too good to do you harm.

Last but not least option which is almost hard to avoid. Someone can use your phone number or email to attempt to sign in. In the password area, the attacker will choose user has forgotten password. Sometimes Facebook will send a verification code to the registered phone number. That's often in the case where you activated a two-way Authentication. Sometimes it will just ask you a series of questions related to that account. It can send images of people for you to verify if you know them. If you are able to pass 3 out of 5, then you are in.

This what you have to do

Always make sure your phone number is linked to your account. Then go to settings and activate *2-Way verification.* When someone logs in to your account, Facebook will ask them for an OTP (one-time-password) that is sent to your phone number by text. Therefore no one will ever log into your account without your authorization. Also when you log into Facebook on a device especially an app and they ask you to save your account for future use (so that u won't need to log in again), refuse. This is to avoid the risk of someone getting into your account from a device you recently used. This is as well very helpful should incase your device gets stolen or lost. Most importantly Notify Facebook should incase someone is using your account. report the individual you suspect and Facebook will do verification to sort the issue out.

If you misplace your device, Quickly go to the nearest internet service spot, buy some time, and reset your account password. Thank you for reading until the end. we recommend you download LastPass for all your password protection. LastPass secures all the passwords of every account on any site you ever visited. you do not need to memories any more passwords except the master password you set on LastPass during registration. visit lastpass.com for info. Or you can download keeper from playstore. Keeper works perfectly on mobile. You can even save your files, passwords or other sensitive data in the keeper records.