Best Ways To Protect Facebook Account from Hackers

If you are like millions out there, Facebook has become your no. 1 website on the Web. As you login to it every single day from many devices, be it from your mobile phone, computer, laptop and office workstation, there is a chance that you may leave your Facebook account on without logging out. If your account gets accessed by strangers, it’s going to open up a large can of worms, so you should seriously try to prevent unwanted access to your account.

There are many ways to prevent access to your account by the next person to use the device, the easiest of which is to log out. However if your smartphone or device gets stolen, it’s a whole different matter. In this article, we will go through some important options you can take to prevent others from accessing your personal Facebook account.

1. Create Strong Password

Chances are, you already have your password created for Facebook however it is advisable for you to make sure your Facebook password is one of a kind and different from your other online accounts e.g. email, blog, hosting etc.
To change your password, go to Account Settings > General > Password.

The best passwords would have the combination of small and capital letters, numbers and symbols.

2. Confirm your mobile number

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Confirming your mobile number is one of many ways to enhance your account security on Facebook. This way, even when you lose or forget your password, Facebook will be able to send you a new one via SMS.
To add your mobile number, go to Account Settings > Mobile and click on Add a Phone.

Select your country and set the mobile carrier before clicking Next.

Now you will be given an instruction to send an SMS to the given number. Follow the instructions to get a code via SMS, and then enter the code into the column. You also have the option to Share your number with friends on Facebook and Allow friends to text me from Facebook. Select your preferences and click Next.

Now your mobile phone is registered with Facebook, and when the need arises, this connection will be useful to reactivate your Facebook account.

3. Activate Secure Browsing, Now

Among other things, to make sure your browsing activity within Facebook is safe, you can turn on the Secure browsing option. By doing this, you automatically limit all external applications that are integrated with Facebook from doing any harm or taking your personal information without your knowledge or approval.

To start securing your account, click on the drop down menu from the top right corner of your Facebook account and go to Account Settings.

Select Security from the left menu.

At the Secure Browsing section, click on the Edit link at the right.

The option panel will appear, ‘check’ the box Browse Facebook on a secure connection then click on the Save Changes button.

4. Activate ‘Login Approvals’

Login approvals is an extended security feature offered by Facebook, and it will require you to enter a security code each time you try to access your Facebook account from unrecognized devices. To activate Login Approvals, go to Account Settings > Security, look for Login Approvals and click on the Edit button.

An option to activate Login Approvals will appear, tick the check box to activate.

A popup window will appear with descriptions of login approvals, click on the Set Up Now button to continue.

If you already register your mobile number, Facebook will automatically send you a code via SMS. Enter this code in the given box and click Submit Code.

Now you have completed with Login Approvals request, click Next to continue.

Next, Facebook will offer you to setup a Code Generator from your mobile phone; this is useful in case you are unable to receive SMS. Click Continue.

Code Generator For Android Phones

Since I am using an Android phone, I’ll use the Android activation as an example.

Download the Facebook Mobile App from Google Play if you don’t already have it. After downloading it to your mobile, click Next.

Once downloaded, Facebook will provide instructions to install the Code Generator. To install, launch your Facebook App, tap on menu > Account > Code Generator > Add App. Then click onFinish Setup below.

Now that your Code Generator is active, Facebook will guide you with the correct steps to use the code generator. Next time when you want to generate a new code, simply launch your app, tap onAccount > Code Generator and the code will appear. For now, click Close as you have completed the steps to activate your Login Approvals.

5. Disconnect Previous Active Sessions

The good thing about Facebook is that it lets you know about your previous active sessions, where you login from, and what devices you used to access your Facebook account. Now to make sure your account is safe, from the Account Settings > Security page, look for ‘Active Sessions‘ and click on Edit.

Now all previous sessions will be listed, together with the current active session at the top of the list. Click on the link ‘End Activity‘ to kill the activities from other devices.

6. Activate Private Browsing

Another way to prevent another person from accessing your account is by activating the ‘Private Browsing’ option from your browsers. All browsers have this private browsing option, and by activating this option, your activity will not be logged into the browsing history.

Safari

If you are using the Safari Browser on Mac, activate Private Browsing from the menu with Safari > Private Browing.

Firefox

For Firefox, go to Tools > Start Private Browsing.

Chrome

If you are using Chrome, there’s an option to browse using the Incognito window, it’s a version of Chrome window where all browsing activity will not be logged in. To open this window, go to File > New Incognito Window.

7. Don’t ‘Keep Me Logged In’

The moment you want to login to your Facebook account, at the Log In page, there’s a small checkbox that says Keep me logged in. Make sure this box is unchecked. Then, log in as usual. With this on, you will be asked for your email and password every time you launch Facebook.

8. Avoid Spam Links

Facebook is serious about spam and is always enhancing its features to make sure you are safe from being a victim to scams. The types of attacks include money scams through direct or indirect requests via Facebook messages, chat etc, phishing links that will redirect you to fake websites,malicious links that could retrieve your personal information or even harm your computer. There are also chances you may receive emails from ‘Facebook’ but it is actually from a phishing website, this modus operandi is part of a scam.

There are many ways you can avoid being a victim:

1. Never click on suspicious links whenever or wherever you find it, even if it came from your friends. If you receive a link, always take the extra step of asking your friend what the link is to confirm that they had sent it. Usually these links are ‘sent’ without the sender’s knowledge. This includes all links that appear in your Facebook Chat, Messages, friend’s status post or even from your email.
2. Never give out your username or password to anyone, including websites with suspicious links and layouts. Giving your passwords freely could jeopardize the security of your personal information on Facebook.
3. Log in only at www.facebook.com and not from any other link or website, unless you are accessing via Facebook App.
4. Update your browser to its latest version to ensure your browser’s security is up to date so it would detect and alert you with a warning when you are navigating to a suspected phishing site.

9. Sign Out After Use

Lastly which is the most important of all (and definitely worth repeating), never forget to log out from your Facebook account.

Conclusion

Now with these 8 options plus one crucial reminder to log out, you can surf your Facebook worry-free. Most of us wouldn’t have thought that our online accounts would get hijacked, but if the recentLinkedIn security breach proves anything, it is that there are people out there on the Web who are actively trying to gain access to our sensitive information. Let’s not make it any easier for them.

Have we missed out on any other security-enhancing tips? Do let us know at the comment section.

5 Security Tips Safe Your Facebook Account

1. Pick a strong password: Use a combination of at least six numbers, letters, and punctuation marks (like ! and &)
2. Make sure your email account(s) are secure
3. Log out of Facebook when you use a computer you share with other people
4. Run anti-virus software on your computer:
   • For Windows
   • For Mac OS
5. Think before you click or download anything

Facebook Important Security Information

Important Facebook Info

Here's a way to keep your Facebook account still safe if you forgot to logout due to a power shortage/blackout or if you are using a public computer (internet cafe).

Try this method:
Steps:
1. Log in to Facebook from your own computer.
2. Click `Account Settings` and then click `Security`
3. Click `Edit` button near to `Active Sessions`.
4. You can see the Active Sessions , End all Sessions by clicking `End Activity`.
5. Voila! You're currently logged-in account on a public computer is now logged-out

Tips For Girls On Increasing Your Facebook Privacy :-) Must Read :)

Girls required more privacy and security on a social networking site facebook.
So, here are the tips.

1.) See what your Facebook
timeline looks like to a specific
friend or the public.

Facebook has a feature that lets you
view what your profile looks like to
a specific friend or to the public.
To access this feature, go to your
Facebook profile and click on the
drop-down gear icon at the top-
right of the website. After clicking
on “View As…”, you will see what
your profile looks like to the public.
When you click on “View as Specific
Person,” you can type in the name
of one of your friends to find out
what your profile looks like to him
or her.

2.) Group friends into lists to
customize who can see your
content.

All of your Facebook friends can be
separated into different lists. This
allows you to customize who you
can share your content with. For
example, I put all of my family
members into a list called “Family.”
When I want to share status
messages, photos, links, and albums
that are related to an upcoming
family reunion, I can ensure that
only my family members see this
content.
You can add your Facebook friends
into different groups by going to
your profile and clicking on
“Friends.” Next to the profile
photo of your friends, you will
notice a box with the word
“Friends” and a checkmark next to
it. After you click on that box, you
can add your friends into different
lists. If you want to create a new
list, then you can click on “Add to
another list…” and then “+ New
List.”
Once your lists are created, you can
adjust who you want to share your
content with from the posting
option under “Update status” that
is at the top of your profile and
News Feed. If you want to learn
how to share content with all of
your friends except for a certain
group, refer to tip #6.

3.) How to opt out of social ads.

Facebook can use your “Likes” as a
way to advertise for brands. If I
“like” the Applebee’s Facebook
Page, then Facebook would be able
to show my profile photo and a
tagline that says something along
the lines of “Your friend Amit likes
Applebee’s, check out the
Applebee’s Facebook Page to learn
about our newest lunch combo.” To
block Facebook from doing this, go
to the “Ads” section of your
“Account Settings.” Go to the
section that says “Ads and Friends,”
hit edit and then select “No One”
where it says “Pair my social
actions with ads for.”
Currently Facebook does not give
third party applications or ad
networks the right to use your
name or picture in ads, but they
might do that in the future. You
can opt out from this now though.
In the “Ads” settings within your
“Account Settings” change your
preferences to “No one” where it
says “If we allow this in the future,
show my information to” under
“Third Party Sites.”

4.) Set up who can see your
future posts.

There is a way to set up a default
group of people that can see all of
your future posts. Go to your
“Privacy” settings under “Account
Settings” and select “Who can see
my future posts?” If you want to
make everything you do on
Facebook public from now on,
select “Public” under the settings.
By selecting “Friends”, only your
friends will be able to see your
future posts. You can also change
it to specific groups and lists as we
talked about in Tip #2. In Tip #6,
you will learn how to let all of your
friends except for a limited group
of people from seeing all of your
future posts.

5.) Review posts that friends tag
you in before they appear on
your timeline.

Did you know that you have the
ability to review statuses, photos,
links and other content that your
friends tag you in before they
appear on your timeline? This
feature is great to have if you have
a friend that notoriously tags you in
embarrassing photos, videos,
statuses or links. You can add this
preference by going to
the “Timeline and Tagging” within
“Account Settings.” You will notice
a section there called “Who can add
things to my timeline?” Enable the
feature that says “Review posts
friends tag you in before they
appear on your timeline.”

6.) Create a default list of friends
that you want to prevent from
seeing your whole profile.

In tip #2, I encouraged you to
create a list of different groups of
friends, including one called
“Family.” I also strongly
recommend that you create a group
to limit certain people from seeing
all of your personal Facebook
content. After all, you do not want
photos of yourself at a bachelor
party or News Year’s party
surfacing on your boss’ Facebook
News Feed. I recommend adding
certain friends to a group called
“Limited Profile,” “Restricted,”
“Limited,” or any other similar
name. You may have also noticed
that Facebook created a restricted
suggested list name automatically
called “Restricted.”
This is the group that you want to
hide all of your future posts from.
You can add people to the
restricted group by clicking on
“Friends” from your Profile and
then adding those individuals with
checkmarks to the restricted list.
After you are done creating the
restricted list, then I encourage you
to refer back to Tip #4 and
customizing your future posts to
be seen by all of your friends
except for your restricted list. You
can easily change around the
privacy of everything that you are
tagged in after it is posted to your
profile just in case you want have
that specific content become visible
for your friends or the public.

7.) Restrict people from seeing
posts that you’ve been tagged in
on your timeline.

By default, all of your friends can
see everything on your timeline.
You can restrict certain people
from seeing the content on your
timeline by going to the “Timeline
and Tagging” settings under your
“Account Settings.” Click on “Edit”
where it says “Who can see posts
you’ve been tagged in on your
timeline.” You can select options
like “Only Me,” “Friends,” “Friends
of friends,” your lists of friends and
“Custom.” Custom allows you to
specify only certain individuals,
lists, or all of your friends except
for a certain list.


8.) Allow only specific
individuals (or lists) to see a
status, photo, or album that you
are posting.

Let’s say that I want to tell my
Facebook friend Tyler Winklevoss
that I read an interesting article
about Bitcoin on FORBES, but I only
want him to see it on my News
Feed. When sending the article
through my status, I would need to
change my privacy for this specific
post by selecting “Custom” and
changing the “Share this with”
setting from “Friends” to “Specific
People or Lists…” When prompted
with who the specific people are
that I want to share this post with,
I would type in just “Tyler
Winklevoss.”
This is what my post would look
like after I change my privacy
setting, write my status, and add
the FORBES link:
After hitting “Post,” only Tyler
Winklevoss and I would be able to
see this post rather than all of his
friends and all of my friends. This
feature can also be used for
Facebook statuses that do not
necessarily have a link, photo, or
video attached to them. I tend to
use this feature with specific people
that I have an inside joke with.

9.) Block people from being able
to post to your Timeline.

You can block people from adding
content to your timeline by
selecting “Timeline and Tagging”
under “Account Settings.” At the
very top, you will notice a section
called “Who can add things to my
timeline?” You can customize this
feature by selecting “Friends” or
“Only Me.” Selecting “Only Me”
means that nobody else can post on
your timeline. I have seen some of
my Facebook friends set their
timeline to “Only Me” when their
birthday is coming up so that their
Facebook wall does not get flooded
with posts.

10.) Block people from seeing
your friends list, your followers
and people/lists you follow.

On Facebook, there is a way to
block people from seeing who your
friends are. You can edit this
information by going to your profile
and clicking on “Friends.” From
there, click on the pencil icon and
then Edit Privacy:
When your privacy settings open,
you can edit who can see your
friend list. This feature also lets you
set who can see the people/lists
that you follow and who can see
your followers on your timeline:

11.) Edit privacy for specific
photo albums.

Did you know that you can edit the
privacy for every specific photo
album that you have uploaded? Go
to your profile and select “Photos.”
From there, click on “Albums.” At
the bottom-right of each photo
album, you will see an icon that
controls who exactly can see that
specific album.

12.) Prevent Facebook from
detecting your face when your
friends upload photos.

When a friend of yours uploads a
photo, Facebook may suggest
tagging you if their algorithm
detects that your face is in the
photo. If you want your profile to
be excluded from Facebook’s facial
recognition feature, you can adjust
these settings by going to the
“Timeline and Tagging” section
under “Account Settings.” Click on
Edit next to where it says “Who
sees tag suggestions when photos
that look like you are uploaded?”
Select “No One” in that preference.

13.) How to disable website
instant personalization.

There are certain websites that use
information from your Facebook
account to deliver a personalized
experience. These websites pulls
information that you and your
Facebook friends have made
public. For example, Yelp.com will
show you local reviews that your
Facebook friends have made and
RottenTomatoes.com shows you
movie reviews that your friends
have made:
You can disable this feature by
going to your “Account Settings”
and then clicking on “Apps.” Scroll
down to where it says “Instant
personalization” and remove the
checkmark where it says “Enable
instant personalization on partner
websites”

14.) How to remotely sign out of
your account.

If you have used Facebook at the
library or a friend’s computer and
forgot to log out, then you may be
relieved that there is a way to sign
out of your account remotely. You
can do this by going to your
“Account Settings” and then
“Security.” At the bottom of the
page, you will notice a section
called “Active Sessions.” When you
hit “End All Activity,” Facebook will
log out your account from every
computer and mobile device that
you have an active session in. You
can also log out of each specific
computer or mobile device instead
of ending all of your sessions.

15.) Require a security code to
access your account.

If you want to add an extra layer of
security for accessing your
Facebook account, then you can
require a security code to get into
your profile from computers or
devices that you have not used
before. The security code is sent to
your mobile device. This feature
can be found under “Account
Settings” and “Security.” Click on
Edit where it says “Login
Approvals” to get started. Facebook
will also send you a confirmation
code at the mobile number that is
associated with your account. Note
that this feature does not work
with landlines or Google Voice.

16.) Receive notifications when
your account is accessed from a
device you haven’t used before

Facebook has a way of notifying you
when your account is accessed from
a computer or device that you have
not used before. You can receive
the notifications by e-mail or text
messages/push notification. This
feature can be accessed under
“Account Settings” and “Security.”
This preference can be found under
“Login Notifications.”

17.) Block people from seeing you
on Facebook entirely

If someone is bullying or harassing
you online, then you should block
them. After blocking someone, that
person can no longer see things
that you post on your timeline, tag
you, invite you to events/groups,
start a conversation with you, or
add you as a friend. You can access
this feature by going to your
“Account Settings” and selecting
“Blocking.” This feature is under
“Block users.”

18.) Block your profile from
search engines.

If you do not want people to find
your Facebook profile by searching
for your name on a search engine,
then you can control that
preference through your privacy
settings.
SearchEngines
You can do this by going to
“Account Settings” and then
selecting “Privacy.” Go to the
section that says “Do you want
other search engines to link to your
timeline?” under “Who can look me
up?” Remove the checkmark where
it says “Let other search engines
link to your timeline.”

19.) Stop a Facebook friend from
chatting with you through Facebook Chat

You may have a friend on Facebook
Chat that constantly messages and
distracts you. There is a way to
stop them from messaging you on
Facebook Chat without removing
them as your Facebook friend. You
can set this up by clicking the gear
icon on the Facebook Chat box from
your computer and clicking
“Advanced Settings.” Enter that
friend’s name where it asks you to
input “Turn on chat for all friends
except…” You can also turn on chat
for only some specific friends or
lists with this feature. And of
course you can turn off chataltogether.

20.) Have you been hacked?

Here’s how you get your account
back.
If you have been hacked, Facebook
has a way of blocking hackers from
getting back into your account. You
can get your account back by
visiting https://www.facebook.com/help/hacked and following the
instructions. Facebook will ask you
to create a new password after you
enter your old password. Facebook
will also ask you if one of the e-
mail addresses connected with your
account is compromised. You can
disconnect that e-mail from being
associated with your Facebook
account going forward. You may
also want to review your purchase
history if you have Facebook Gift
Cards or other credits.

Worm Attacks on Facebook

Your Facebook Account Can Be Hacked Facebook currently has 4 worm (virus) Attacks. These attacks can lead to loss of your personal information or in worse case scan get your Facebook Account Hacked
Worm 1 :- If you get a notice of a PHOTO TAG . Do not open it.
Worm 2 :- If you get a notification that a friend reported you for offensive behavior etc.. Do not open it.
Worm 3 Is a Video saying 99% of People can not watch this for more the 15 Sec. Do not open it.
Worm 4 :- All Messages from your friends via chat saying click this link .. Do not open.
All these worms are made to take your personal information and even to hack your accounts. The only way to protect yourself from these is to ignore them and not to click on them.
Now Share this info and Help your friends as well..

Denies Hacker Removed Mark Zuckerberg’s Cover Photo

An Egyptian hacker claims to have removed the cover photo from the profile of Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook says there’s no evidence of suspicious activity on the account.
According to The Hacker News, the cover photo from Zuckerberg’s official account was missing at some point. The Egyptian hacker, called “Dr.FarFar,” claims to have used the “I don’t like a photo I’m tagged in” feature with a request edited in the Fiddler debugging tool.

He has also published a video to demonstrate that the profile image from Zuckerberg’s account was gone at some point.

The cover photo from Zuckerberg’s profile was missing for a few hours on Saturday, but there’s no evidence that the hacker is responsible for it.

Facebook representatives have told The Hacker News that “there is no merit to this claim.”

“We have confirmed there was no suspicious activity on the account,” they said.

Secure Facebook Account

Take the following steps to ensure your Facebook account never gets hacked- 
1. Use HTTPS instead of HTTP in the URL when you save the bookmark of Facebook.
2. Do not use Facebook apps which says "Find your crush," "Find your next valentine" etc. 
3. Keep your Facebook chat option turned off for some time daily. 4. Keep your email address, phone number private. 
5. Always keep 4-5 trusted friends on Facebook. 
6. Never visit your Facebook profile through websites other than Facebook. They may be Phishing pages.
7. Change your Facebook password once or twice a month.
8. Always remember to Log Out off Facebook whenever you use it in Cyber or Internet Caffeys.
9. Install a trusted Anti Virus which will detect Phishing pages.
10. I recommend you to use Incognito mode while using Facebook.

Facebook Virus Attacks

Facebook currently has 4 virus Attacks.

These attacks can get your Facebook Account Hacked...

1) :- If you get a notice of a malicious PHOTO TAG from unknown person Do not
open it.

2) :- If you get a notification that a friend
reported you for offensive behavior etc.. Do not open it.

3) :- If a Video saying 99% of People can not
watch this for more the 15 Sec or contains some kinda porn Don't click on it.

4) :- All Messages from your friends via chat saying click this link.. Do not open. It will infect your device with malicious scripts.

Only way to protect yourself from these is to ignore them and not to click on them.

Share this info and Help your friends. 

Posted on:

                Dec 25 2013