Facebook Profile hack: how to prevent?

• Never accept friend request from strangers.  don’t trust on any fake, fancy, exciting messages to want to be your friend. if you really want to do so,  before becoming friend, Always verify their identity, profile information and their activity either online or offline.

• Don’t fall for the ‘collect as many friends as possible’ game that amateur Facebook users often get into.

• Review your full list of friends once in a while (I know it’s daunting and who’s got the time anyway?) to ensure you didn’t add someone by mistake. There’s also a big chance that someone on your list was special to you for a particular moment and that’s no longer the case. You should not hesitate to remove him/her from your list.

• Adopt a rule for yourself of considering who is really your ‘friend’. For example for me, I have received numerous invitation from co-workers or ex-coworkers. I have decided that I’ll use Facebook only with people I considered friends and not co-workers or people I’ll never meet again.

• Change your privacy settings. However, what you need to control is how much they see. the less message you share with public, more you are private.

• Keep your password with the mixture of letters and digits.  its more secure.  don’t share your password to anyone even it is your family members, boy friend or girl friend! you never know what happens!

1. Hack proof your Facebook account with strong password.Many users give less importance to the passwords that they are using but actually, a robust password will likely save your day. A strong password is composed of both uppercase and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. Password should be at least 8 characters long. Do not include any personal information in your password like your name, birth date, or address to make it difficult to guess. If you want to test the strength of your password, you can go to Microsoft Password Checker. It is also highly recommended to change your password every once in a while.

2. Protect the computer that you use against virus and spyware. In doing so, you also protect all the confidential information that is stored in your computer. Spyware and other malicious software can steal your confidential information like passwords, bank info, contact info, and private files by sending them to the hacker. When you use a friend’s computer or computer café, you have to make sure you log out properly and never click the ‘remember me’ option.

3. Tweak Privacy Settings. Although Facebook is working hard to keep the site safe, still there are multiple instances of security breach. It would greatly help if you fine-tune the Privacy Settings on Facebook to control what information is visible to the public. The more information you allow people to see, the greater the risk on these information stolen. The only way to keep your photos private on the internet is to not post it. Privacy settings do not stop hackers from getting your private photos and posting them somewhere else. In fact, people get more curious when they see photos they cannot access. So if you have photos or information that can potentially ruin your life and dignity, do not put them on the internet.

4. Be careful when playing applications. People of all ages are now crazy over different Facebook applications like Mafia Wars, Farmville, or Yoville to name few. And it is really addictive especially if you have a lot of friends playing these games. However, you need to understand that every time to install any of these applications you allow the creators of the application to access your personal information. It is advisable to use a different Facebook account to play games just to make sure your personal email or other information will not be compromised.

5. If at all possible, use Mozilla Firefox web browser. Aside from the thousands of add-ons that Firefox offer, security is one of the best reasons why you should switch now. Firefox has better pop-up blockers and does not allow spyware to get on your computer easily.

If this article helped you in any way, please pass this on to your Facebook friends.