What to do if your Facebook Account has been hacked
Go to https://www.facebook.com/hacked and follow the instructions on-screen. You’ll go through three steps:
- Verify your account and change password. You’ll be asked to identify your account, change your password, and change the password associated with the e-mail account that you use for Facebook.
- Review and fix anything the cybercriminal changed.
- Unlock account.
How to prevent your Facebook Account from being hacked
Security
settings are the key. So stop what you’re doing and print out this
article. Then log into Facebook and update these settings.
From Account settings, click on Security. I recommend the following settings for the highest level of security.
1. Secure Browsing – enabled.
2. Login Notifications – enabled.
3. Login
Approvals – enabled. This feature requires that you have a cell phone
capable of receiving text messages. When enabled, you will receive a
code via text message if your account is accessed from an unrecognized
location.
This is
important for teens. They may use computers at a friend’s house, the
library, or other public locations. As an example, if you are logging
in to Facebook from a computer in the library, you’ll be asked to enter
in a code. You’ll receive the text message, know that it’s YOU using
Facebook, and enter the code. If you receive the text message and you
WERE NOT trying to log into Facebook, you’ll know there is a problem.
And the hacker trying to get into your account will not have the code.
4. App Passwords – If you don’t have many apps associated with your Facebook account, you can probably leave this off. If you do enable login approvals as described above, and you do use apps such as Skype through Facebook, then you may want to set app passwords. You can read about this feature on Facebook Help and Inside Facebook.
5. Recognized Devices – if there is anything listed here that doesn’t look familiar, or the date is not recent, remove it.
6. Active Sessions – remove all except Current session.
Your Security Settings page should now look something like this:
As a last
step, go to General Account settings and change your Facebook
password. And finally, log out of Facebook when not in use.
Now with
your Facebook account safe and secure, you can get back to important
Facebook activities, such as post-election re-friending, without too
much of a fear of hackers accessing your account.