What To Do If Your Facebook Account Gets Hacked: Steps To Secure Your FB Profile
It’s annoying, but it does happen. With hackers dedicated to exploiting the most negligible mistakes made by users, situations of Facebook accounts being hacked have become pretty inevitable. There are also cases when a friend or family member gets pirated access and exploits the available data.
Security and hacking problems are spreading wide on social media. If you have a Facebook account or any other social media profiles for that matter, there is a good possibility that your data may have been hacked at some point. When it comes to Facebook for business, you should take the correct precautions if this happens to your account.
In more of the recent Facebook hacks, personal credentials including users’ full names, birthdays, locations, email IDs, phone numbers, and relationship status were leaked. That means more than half a billion users’ data was compromised. If your security and privacy on Facebook is being infringed, you are required to take proactive steps to protect the information that is crucial to you.
Why Do Hackers Want Your Account?
There has been a steady increase in the reports of fraudulent people hacking accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social networking networks.
It could be anyone, even someone you know, playing a practical joke. In some instances, a hacker may act out of personal motives, seeking revenge. This could lead to harmful messages being sent to your social media friends or followers, the exposure of private photos or confidential information, or even the deletion of all your contacts.
On the other hand, there is an objective which is more commercial, where individuals face the risk of extortion. The Dark Web hosts various marketplaces where unique usernames can be purchased from hackers. This is something similar to digital vanity plates. Which means that anyone could potentially hack your profile, lock you out, take control of it, and then sell that information to someone else.
Additional Potential Risks for Business Accounts:
Loss of Established Audience: If your Facebook business page gets hacked, you risk losing years of effort spent building an audience. Starting over can be a massive setback.
Customer Confusion: Customers may mistakenly interact with hacked accounts, leading to misinformation or scams.
Security Risks: Active hacked accounts can pose threats to your followers and their personal information.
Confirm the Hacker
Not every hack is through places like the Dark Web. It's also possible that you forgot to log out of a non-personal device you were using and the next user accessed your account. Or maybe somebody was playing with your smartphone and scrolled through your profile.
If your account wasn’t really hacked, you can easily change your password and create a screen lock for your smartphone. We recommend enabling Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) on your account for extra security.
But if you were explicitly targeted, and your data was an element to an extensive Facebook data breach, then you require additional security measures.
Check If You Can Still Log In to Your Account?
Check out the last devices you have logged in from, and see if there's any, that is new and unfamiliar. You can also review the dates to identify which of those log-ins were not done by you.
If anything seems suspicious, click the button that says ‘Log Out of All Devices’ in the lower right corner and instantly change your password.
If you can’t log in, it's an indication that the hacker has modified your password, which could mean malicious intent.
Ask Your Friends to Check Your Profile
Ask your close friends to log in to their Facebook profile and check yours:
- Has your profile name, picture, or email ID changed?
- Have your connections removed, and check for recently added friends (or friend requests to other users) you don’t know?
- Are there unwanted posts you didn’t put up?
- Do your friends get any private messages after the hack?
Check Your Alternate Email ID Settings
If you have given an alternate email ID to get notifications concerning your Facebook account, confirm whether that email address has been removed or changed. If you don’t have an alternate address, then add one immediately.
Change Your Security Question and Answer
Having an excellent security question is crucial. Your security question should be very personal, making it impossible to know or guess, that is to say, only you can answer that. You will have to modify your security question instantly as someone may notice or change your answer.
Delete Spam Messages That You Find on Your Timeline
Look at your Facebook wall and message box for hints of spam messages. If you notice any, delete them and report them immediately to Facebook as spam. Leaving them ignored on your Facebook account could lead to data loss or much more.
Remove Unwanted Apps
Delete any unofficial or spammy applications on your Facebook account. Go through all the apps that you installed then click on Account Settings and then the Apps option. Click Remove Application for any nonessential, spoofy, or strange applications.
Change Passwords of Related Services
If you are handling the same password for other social media accounts or bank accounts, you must modify them. It is also recommended to change passwords that are identical to the compromised ones.
Stay Safe on Facebook
We are so used to social media platforms that we hardly consider what we type. Usually, our own activities and the details we share can put us in danger – not just from hackers, but also from real-life stalkers.
It might be time to revise your Facebook settings to make it more secure from people who could target you. Hackers are a serious threat for both personal and business accounts. Before you share a post, think twice and make sure that it is not putting yourself at risk!
These urgent steps to take will help you to safeguard your compromised Facebook account. This will also ensure that your privacy and security remain in your hands and hackers won't be able to misuse them in the future.
Perform a Full Review of Linked Accounts
In addition to Facebook apps, check any other accounts linked to your Facebook profile. This includes Instagram, Messenger, or any third-party services. Hackers may use these connections to gain further access.
Change Passwords of Related Services
If you are handling the same password for other social media accounts or bank accounts, you must modify them. It is also recommended to change passwords that are identical to the compromised ones.
What to Do If You Can’t Recover Your Account
If regaining control is difficult, here’s what you can do:
Contact Facebook Support: Use Facebook’s Help Centre resources to report your hacked account. Start with facebook.com/hacked for guidance.
Disable the Account Temporarily: If you suspect ongoing damage, temporarily disable the account while you work on recovering access.
Stay Safe on Facebook
We are so used to social media platforms that we hardly consider what we type. Usually, our own activities and the details we share can put us in danger, not just from hackers, but also from real-life stalkers.
It might be time to revise your Facebook settings to make it more secure from people who could target you. Hackers are a serious threat for both personal and business accounts. Before you share a post, think twice and make sure that it is not putting yourself at risk!. Educating yourself about potential risks will go a long way in preventing future incidents.
At Planet Media we handle all your social media accounts with utmost care, implementing all necessary precautions to protect you from hackers and unwanted attention. Trust us to safeguard your online presence while you focus on scaling your next goal.
