Imagine someone using your personal details to do criminal activities online, spread spam and malware to other people. That happens to hundreds of Facebook users everyday. Among those 850 million Facebook users, there are cyber criminals and hackers, who always hacks into Facebook profiles and uses the full name, location, and personal details of that users to do illegal activities.    Think about it. This could happen to you.

Are you safe from hackers? Have you followed steps to secure your private information?

How do hackers get in your account?

There are several common ways that hackers use to hack into Facebook accounts. Mostly to steal private information, personal data and to scam other people on the network.

Stealing login information -: It’s by far the easiest way to access another Facebook profile because most people uses very weak and obvious passwords for their accounts and even share’s their passwords with friends.

Using the malware -: This is very popular, specially on Facebook because these hackers easily fool anyone to click and visit a website by scamming them with attractive pictures and false information.

Hacking into Email -: By hacking into someone’s email account, they can reset the Facebook password easily without any trouble.

Unknown apps -:  There are thousands of apps on Facebook that easily access users profiles, and provides false information like “check to see how many people view your profile”. There is no possible way to see people who view your profile. Even Facebook security team says it’s impossible. Hackers and scammers use these methods to fool people into giving them what they want through these apps.

How to protect your Facebook account?

There are no special software’s to protect yourself from hackers. It’s all up to you. Follow these simple steps and you will be saving yourself some big trouble.

Enable Secure Browsing -: Go to security settings tab on Facebook -> click on Secure Browsing tab and do the check mark and save the settings. Now you will see your normal Facebook URL change into https:. This is a very important step to protect your profile.

Use a strong Password -: Never use something obvious like a name or your birthday for your password. A strong password needs to be longer than 8 letters. Mix it with numbers and letters. And try to use one capital letter in your password. This applies to all your email and social networking accounts.

Keep your private details to a minimum -: Most users likes to share everything they do on Facebook. That is not a very good idea. We all know that doesn’t end well. Even you know that most of the people on your profile are strangers that you never even talk to. So, always be careful when sharing your personal information.

Don’t click on strange links -: Scammers use very tricky ways to fool you into clicking on their links. Always think twice before clicking on links. Those links can even come from a profile of your closest friend, and they wouldn’t even know about it.

Manage apps -: Go to settings -> apps tab and get rid of all the useless apps on your Facebook profile. Then go to Privacy tab and pesonalize the settings on how those apps use your information and who can see your info.

Enable Login Notifications -: Go to settings -> security and enable login notifications. This will let you know whenever someone tries to access your account. It will sent you a text or an email if  hacks into you account and then you can do necessary steps to protect your profile.

If your profile has already been hacked by someone. Visit Facebook help center and follow the instructions.

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Roshan Jerad Perera