You should keep yourself aware of the possibility that you’ve become a victim of an FB hack. This is something you don’t want to get into, but it’s totally manageable when you discover the vulnerability in your account early on.
There are many symptoms of your account being hacked, and these include:
- Unexplained activity in your Timeline or private messages
- Getting locked out of your account suddenly
- Being notified via e-mail or phone number to verify your account
When you experience one or all of these alert signs, it’s time to action. However, what steps can you take? Here are a few steps that are not only highly recommended but can also be considered as crucial.
Log In, Change Your Password and Log Out of All Devices
When you get locked out, you can still verify your account because Facebook has a built-in security feature to assist you with that. Take advantage of that by going to your account and changing your password.
However, you should do more than that. You should also log out of all devices, because this is the only way you can weed out unwanted access. Even though you changed passwords, the hacker can still gain access by remaining logged in to their laptop or mobile device.
If you log out of all devices, however, they lose all access to your Facebook account.
Change the Password to Your Email Address
If your Facebook account has the same password as your email address, there’s a big chance that your email account has already been infiltrated as well. This means that the next step to securing your account is to log in to your email address, and change the password.
Email addresses, particularly Gmail, has a two-step verification system similar to what Facebook is offering its users. You should take advantage of that as well, but avoid putting your phone number in public on your FB Timeline. You may not get hacked, but you may as well be harassed, or sent phishing text to capture your sensitive details.
Being a victim of an FB hack is an unpleasant experience. It could also become very stressful, especially when the hackers start to harass you or your friends and business contacts. You can, however, regain control of your account as soon as you set up the necessary safeguards.
