Recently, hackers attacked Facebook. Their booty? Nearly 50 million accounts whose access credentials and personal information have been stolen. Faced with this flaw on an unprecedented scale, the social network users have several tools to try to protect their privacy. Here are three solutions you should implement to protect your Facebook account from being hacked.
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Adopt two-factor authentication on Facebook
To secure their services, all major websites provide a two-factor authorization feature. It consists of asking the user for a second way to verify his or her identity, in addition to his password. In most cases, this is a code received by SMS on their smartphone – Facebook assumes that only the user is likely to have access to their smartphone.
The process involves giving your phone number to Facebook which also uses it for advertising purposes. The social network offers another solution: use a third-party application (such as Duo or Google Authenticator) to send this second code. Note that the hack just revealed by Facebook does not seem to have endangered users’ passwords.
Check the list of connected devices
Smartphones, tablets, computers and other devices – today there is a multitude of ways you can access Facebook. Over time, we, therefore, have more and more devices connected to our accounts. It is important to regularly check the list of devices that have access to it in order to verify that there are no suspicious devices on the list. This list of connected devices can be accessed by going to the Security section of Facebook Settings.
If necessary, it is possible to automatically disconnect all the devices linked to your account. Additionally, on the “Security and connection” page, Facebook offers to send you alerts (by email or on Facebook) in the event a suspicious device is connected to your account.
Limit the amount of personal data offered to Facebook
Despite these precautions, the massive Facebook hack that was recently revealed proves that no precaution is infallible. Thus, it is preferable to limit the data that is shared with the social network as much as possible. It is possible to delete all information that is not essential (city of birth, school attended, etc.) from your account. There’s also a page where you can manage your advertising preferences. The page makes it possible to delete all of your listed interests or to put a stop to data sharing with Facebook’s external partners.
A complimentary solution lies in deactivating the geolocation service. Additionally, Facebook and Messenger applications are very insistent on obtaining the list of contacts in our directory. This access allows Facebook to find the phone numbers of our friends without their consent. Disabling this access is therefore recommended. Disabling Facebook and Messender’s access to your phone’s camera and microphone is also a good idea.
