Everyone uses Facebook at this point. The medium is for many people, one of their primary modes of communication with their loved ones. But, it is an online medium and it can be easily hacked. Social media is plagued by problems related to security and hacking. In the event that you have a Facebook account or any other social media platform, your personal information is likely to have been compromised at some point.
A recent Facebook hack exposed the personal information of more than half a billion Facebook users. This information included their full names, birthdates, email addresses, cell phone numbers, and whether or not they were dating someone.
In the US, there are 32 million users; in the UK, 11 million; in India, 6 million;
By way of a press release, Facebook has since said that this vulnerability was found and remedied in 2019.
A hack involving 540 million Facebook IDs, comments, and likes was found in April of this year.
Another option would be to look at the 419 million phone numbers, names, and Facebook IDs made public in September 2019.
How do you know if you’ve been hacked? Well, there will be clear signs that you can be wary of to know for sure that you haven’t been hacked. In this blog post, we will discuss how you can know that you have been hacked and what to do if you’ve been hacked.
Why Would a Hacker Want To Get Into Your Facebook?
There have been instances where crooks have taken control of accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms. It’s possible that someone you know is pulling a prank on you. It may be one of your ex-lovers seeking retribution.
Relationship sabotage or corporate espionage could also be to blame.
Depending on the severity of the attack, your hacker may send threatening messages to your friends, post images of your private life online, or even wipe all your contact information.
When it comes to other projects, the focus is more commercial. You may be subjected to blackmail.
It’s not uncommon for social media accounts to be hijacked for commercial purposes.
It is possible to buy a unique login on the Dark Web. Like a digital vanity plate, it’s a bit like this. As a result, your account will be hacked, you will be locked out, and it will be sold to someone else.
What to Do If You’ve Been Hacked?
So how do you know your Facebook account has been hacked and what to do if Facebook account is hacked; how to get control over it. Here are some detailed steps you can take to ensure that you can control the situation when you’ve been hacked.
Here are some immediate steps that you should take if you think you’ve been hacked.
1. Be Sure You’ve Been Hacked
The first thing any clever hacker can do is to ensure that once they’re in your account, you can’t get into it any longer. You can simply log in the way you do and if you can’t log in, chances are, the hacker has already gotten into your account.
2. Report to Facebook
Once you’ve confirmed that my Facebook page was hacked, you need to launch an official report to Facebook. Facebook has a nice URL, https://www.facebook.com/hacked/ where you can let them know your account has been compromised, even when you can’t access your own account.
You’ll be requested to key in the phone number or email you used to open the account. Through this, you can easily log in to your account and recover it.
3. Change All Your Passwords
Now the next step is to ensure that you quickly go into your settings and you change all your passwords and your security questions. The hacker already knows this information by now. Once you’ve finally changed all this, you need to now click the “sign out of all devices” option to ensure the hacker is kicked out of your account.
Make sure you use a very strong password and security question this time around so you don’t have to face the same situation again.
4. Enable Two-factor Authentication
Multiple levels of authentication exist for a reason. They mean an extra layer of protection in case somebody tries to access your accounts. You will be prompted immediately when this happens and your phone or email will get a code.
This dual-level of authentication might just be the last thing that saves your Facebook account from being hacked.
5. Ensure Privacy
Going forward after your Facebook account has been hacked, just make sure that you maintain your privacy and do not end up sharing personal information like passwords and answers to security questions. Even if you think you trust someone, you don’t need to share this information over an online platform and you have to be sure that this information is not stored online either.
6. Protect Your Financial Information
Never, ever let your browser save your financial information or PIN under any circumstance. It is key for you to remember that in the wrong hands and in case your Facebook account was hacked or any other digital media of yours was compromised, your money will be on the line.
Hackers are pretty smart people and they can easily get into other mediums if they’ve hacked one. You generally won’t even know but they will have access to all your funds and associated financial information.
All in all, if you think you’ve been hacked, you need to take immediate action to control the spread of the wildfire as they say. You need to ensure that you are taking the necessary steps like using a VPN and strong passwords to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
