The largest social network has around 3 billion active monthly users (2.8). So hackers have a lot of accounts to experiment with.
Despite the security updates that were made after one security breach in 2018 which affected more than 30 million users, more than 500.000 phone numbers had been leaked by 2019.
Although Facebook security has greatly improved after these breaches, hackers still target individual accounts.
So how can they violate Facebook accounts? Are you vulnerable? How can you protect yourself?
According to a 2015 report by the New York Post, approximately 160.000 Facebook accounts are compromised daily. This number will have increased by today.
Although you can blame Facebook for any violations, it is not technically responsible for most of these attacks. Facebook account hackers use various means to gain control of users' profiles. Mainly, they take advantage of the social and psychological innocence of a user.
For example, you may receive a hack through one of your Facebook friends or close acquaintances.
Account hackers can hack into the accounts of friends who influence you, or the victim they are interested in. No one is safe. No social networking platform is completely secure. Big tech companies, politicians and celebrities are targeted in every social network.
Facebook Transparency data show that 120 million accounts on the platform are fake. By the end of 2020, they had published 234,5 million unwanted content. Obviously, there are numbers that no one has ever discovered.
Most fake Facebook profiles impersonate their victims and deceive friends and followers. Therefore, the victim's connections (friends) are often the targets and not the direct account holders.
After capturing an account, attackers can also access the victim's pages.
How they violate Facebook accounts
Hackers use various means and one of the most popular is Phishing and social engineering.
Of course we can not show you directly how to hack a Facebook account, but you should know how to do it. And if you are a victim of a hacker, you need to know how to fix it.
If you leave the phone number or address your email publicly on your Facebook profile, then you will be more vulnerable to phishing attacks.
Social engineering or social engineering often accompanies this type of attack (phishing). Phishing occurs when an attacker sends a fake link to a victim. For example, they can send a message asking the victim to log in to their Facebook account (for security reasons) via a specific link or to read a message.
If someone clicks on the link and gives us a username and password, the attacker grabs this information. If the victim does not notice the leak in time, the attacker can log in to their account. He then changes the victim's login details and occupies his profile.
An attacker may also request a new password for you.
For example, it may send a message saying that Facebook needs to fix a problem with your account. He then asks you to send him the code you will receive. Once you send them the password, they change your password and log you out of your account.
Unfortunately, many Facebook users fall victim to this trap. It is often too late to realize that they have lost access to their Facebook account as the hacker changes their personal information.
Hiding your personal contact information such as phone numbers and email addresses from the public can be a very effective precaution.
Pay attention to the type of messages (SMS, emails and calls) that you respond to, no matter how standard they seem. Don't click on suspicious links that look strange or malicious. Even if you are familiar with them, be careful not to share your login information with third-party apps or websites.
Brute Force Attacks discover Facebook passwords
Brute Force attacks use manual and automatic methods to essay device password combinations. Attackers use many string generators to guess passwords.
Surprisingly, many Facebook users make this process much easier for hackers. If you look at the top passwords used by internet users you will find that you can guess them very easily.
The less complicated a password is, the more vulnerable it is to a Brute Force attack.
To thwart Brute Force attacks, use strong passwords that are hard to guess. An effective combination is the use of special characters, numbers, along with uppercase and lowercase letters. The size of the password counts.
Next, use Facebook's two-factor authentication.
Malicious links and spyware
Some apps ask for permission to access your Facebook credentials. Some of these applications are spying on you. In the worst case, they may seize your account and send unsolicited messages to your friends.
Hackers can also use malicious spy links and applications to install spyware on your computer.
Such spyware can gain access to your Facebook account to start doing various things without your knowledge. Infected links and malicious applications can get instructions from hackers.
Preventing this attack is easy. Denying access to unreliable applications for reading your Facebook data will help you a lot.
Never click on a suspicious link and avoid unreliable applications, as they can add malware to your computer and affect Facebook.
Password and username leaks
If your phone or browser stores your login information, then you run the risk.
Connecting to your Facebook account via a public network or shared computer can also put your account at risk.
When you use shared computers, you may forget to log out. This gives hackers a chance to snatch your account as they can get personal information from your already linked account.
An attacker can also use the single-session cookie operation to spy on you over a public Wi-Fi.
When you save login information to shared computers you run the risk. Even if you save them on your own computer, you are not safe. Remember, you can not trust anyone.
How to stop invaders?
- Do not click on suspicious links. Watch out for phishing messages and emails.
- Avoid storing login information on smartphones and browsers.
- Use a combination of special characters, numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters to create your password.
- Hide sensitive information such as phone numbers and email addresses from the public on Facebook. Keep your account private anyway.
- Do not give unreliable applications or websites access to your login credentials.
- Avoid using Facebook on public networks and shared computers.
- Do not share login information with third parties.
- Use Facebook's two-factor authentication.
- Never exchange a password reset link with a third party, no matter how serious it may seem.
