It is not easy to stay up to date with Facebook. Certain times you will notice that your friend is acting weird on the website and sends out spam messages or putting status that is not in their character. Most of the time, their account has just been hacked. Hacking is an act of trespassing one’s privacy and using the details harvested for their own purpose. Most of which is to steal personal details. If this happens, they can either steal your identity or make use of it to blackmail you and other people. There are more than hundreds of Facebook accounts being hacked every day. It is your duty and responsibility to stop people from hacking your account and avoid becoming the next victim. Here are the top 5 ways to manage your Facebook account and prevent hackers from entering your account.
1. Make Strong Passwords
There are countless people out there who take their Facebook account for granted. They either use their birthdays as a password or something more usual and obvious for hackers to easily get into their accounts. This is why there are more than thousands of accounts being hacked every day. The best way to avoid people from hacking your account is to make stronger passwords. Add a mix of significant words to your life and numbers that only you can memorize. This way, people who are more likely to hack your account won’t be able to guess your password right away.
Another good way of keeping hackers at bay is to reset your password every now and then. Maintain your password for a month. Make a list of passwords then rotate them every month.
Make sure that you memorize every password that you have and be on time when you change your passwords. Always log off on Facebook when you use to go out or if you are using a public computer.
2. Educate Yourself
Take the time to read the privacy policy of Facebook. There is a lot of insightful information that you can read on that long stretch of words. Understand what it means to have privacy within the website. Read exactly what it is that you understand. If you have questions, try to reach out to Facebook and see what they can do to help you understand their statement. Get to know the features of the website such as privacy settings. It will be very educational for someone who is not familiar with using social media.
There are countless ways to fend off hackers. Learn each of them and do your part to protect your computer as well as your Facebook profile from getting hacked. Educate yourself on how you can extensively defend your profile by learning how antivirus software works and how anti-keylogger software works.
3. Add Only Familiar People
Most of the time, people would say that Facebook is a social place. Therefore, they would add any person over the internet to broaden their scope of friends. The more you add strangers into your profile the more likely you will be inviting a hacker into your midst. Stay away from adding a stranger’s profile. If you are not sure about the profile that has asked to be your friend, message that profiles first and asks if they know you. If so, add them up and reconnect with your friend but if not, dump the profile.
There are also many ways for you to keep your profile private. Learn how to minimize the scope of your profile by editing the privacy settings and the account settings of your Facebook page. This way, random people won’t be able to add you.
4. Do Not Click on Links
There are certain times when Facebook goes wonky and your friends start spamming links on your messages. Never ever click on those links. Do not reply to it. Simply close the message box and ignore it. These links are viruses that will hack your profile and spread the spam messages to your other friends. This is also the same as those spam comments that you see in the comments section. Avoid clicking all those links and you will stay clear from viruses. If this does happen, make sure that your antivirus software is running. Emails are also a part of this fraud. Never reply to emails or any ads that want you to click on them. Most ads will say that you have won something to entice you into clicking on the ad. This will instantly hack your account and steal all of your important details.
Always think before you click any ad. Even if it is a link from your best friend’s wall, try not to click a link that is obviously a spam message or a claim that you have one a million dollars or a free vacation to a tropical island.
5. Never Share Your Username and Password
The most important tip anyone can give you is to avoid sharing your username and password to anyone, not even your significant other. Your username and password should be treated with the utmost privacy. If you cannot remember your password, try to keep a copy of it but store it in a place where only you can access such information.
Use code to decipher a secret sentence that only you can understand. This way, you keep hackers from entering your profile and send out malicious links to others to spread the disease.
Now that you have an idea on how to protect your Facebook account, go out there and spread the knowledge that you have learned to your friends to stop hackers from entering their accounts as well. The best way to stop hackers is to be vigilant and careful with what you do when you are inside the internet. These people are ruthless when it comes to taking advantage of other people.