While it’s impossible to guarantee that your Facebook account won’t be hacked, you can take a few steps to lessen the likelihood of an unscrupulous person gaining access to your account. Facebook is approaching 1 billion users, and as such, there is a lot of information available through Facebook. You may inadvertently post just enough information for someone to steal your identity, or someone may post on your behalf after gaining access to your account. This post may cause embarrassment, job loss, or even legal action.

Here are some tips to help prevent the stress that unauthorized access to your account can cause.

• Stating the obvious: You really shouldn’t share your password for any account with anyone. Today you may be on good terms, but tomorrow you may not. It’s sad to say, but you never know what people are capable of, especially if they feel like they’ve been screwed over.
• Do not reuse passwords: You should never use the same password for multiple sites. Repeatedly reusing a password increases the likelihood that someone else can steal it. There are utilities available that will store and generate passwords for you if you are someone who struggles with the number of passwords you have to remember. One such utility is Keepass. Using Keepass you can generate passwords for anything that requires one. You just have to set a password for Keepass. Everything else is stored in the Keepass database.
• Use complex passwords: If you are not using a password generator, use passwords that are a combination of letters (upper and lower case), numbers, and symbols. Do not use common words, birthdays or names. There are tools available that make cracking passwords made up of words or dictionary names very easy.
• Activate https: If you are using http (which is the default setting for Facebook), you are vulnerable to being hacked. The apps that are available for Android devices and computers can gain access to your Facebook account in just a few minutes if they are on the same wireless network as you.
• If it’s too good to be true, it probably is: If you notice numerous likes for an image, a strange news of something that seems a bit over the top probably is. Clickjacking is quickly becoming a way to trick users into revealing personal information about them, including passwords and other private data. Think before you click.
• Activate login notification: Facebook has a feature similar to Gmail that sends you a notification every time someone (hopefully you) logs into your account. Once you have successfully logged in, you will receive a text message notifying you of the login. The text message includes instructions on what to do if you weren’t the one who logged in.
• Turn on Login Approvals: You can also set Facebook to require approval for a login. When someone (hopefully you) tries to log in, they are sent a text message with a verification code. The person trying to log in must enter the verification code to continue.
• Check to see active sessions: Check active sessions for activity that seems suspicious. If you take a look and see that logins from countries other than the one you live in your account have been compromised and you need to change your password immediately. However, be careful. If you’re using Facebook mobile, the activity may not display locally because your ISP doesn’t provide the IP address.
• All of these settings (and a few others) can be managed by clicking the inverted triangle next to home and then going to Account Settings > Security.

Until the next post… safe browsing!