Chinenye Anuforo [email protected]
Many people have fallen victim to hackers, especially with their Facebook account. If your account gets accessed by strangers, it opens up some secrets, so you should seriously try to prevent unwanted access to your account. Below are guides on how to protect your account:
Create a strong password
Chances are you already have your Facebook password. But you should make sure it is unique, meaning that you don’t use it anywhere else. To change your password, go to Account Settings > General > Password.
Confirm your mobile number
Doing this ensures that, even if you lose or forget your password, Facebook will be able to send you a new one via text message.
To add your mobile number, go to Account Settings > Mobile and click on Add a Phone.
Activate secure browsing
Another way of making sure your Facebook browsing activity is safe is to turn on secure browsing. This automatically prevents any external applications that are integrated with Facebook from doing any harm or taking your personal information without your knowledge or approval.
To secure your account, click the drop down menu from the top right corner of your Facebook account and go to Account Settings. Select ‘Security’ from the left menu.
At the secure browsing section, click on the Edit link at the right.
When the option panel appears, check the box ‘Browse Facebook on a secure connection,’ then click the Save Changes button.
Activate ‘login approvals’
Login approvals is an extended security feature offered by Facebook. It requires you to enter a security code each time you try to access your Facebook account from an unrecognised device. To activate login approvals, go to Account Settings > Security, look for Login Approvals and click on the Edit button. When the option to activate Login Approvals will appear, tick the check box to activate. When a popup window will appear with descriptions of login approvals, click on the ‘Set Up Now’ button to continue.
If your mobile number is already registered, Facebook will automatically send you a code via SMS. Enter this code in the given box and click Submit Code.
Disconnect previous active sessions
The good thing about Facebook is that it lets you know about your previous active sessions, where you log in from, and what devices you used to access your Facebook account. Now, to make sure your account is safe, from the Account Settings > Security page, look for ‘Active Sessions‘ and click on Edit. Click on the link ‘End Activity‘ to kill the sessions on all other devices.
Activate Private Browsing
Another way to prevent another person from accessing your account is by activating ‘Private Browsing’ from your browsers. All browsers have this feature, which prevents them from logging your browsing history.
Don’t ‘Keep Me Logged In’
The moment you want to login to your Facebook account, at the Log In page, there’s a small checkbox that says Keep me logged in. Make sure this box is unchecked. Then, log in as usual. With this on, you will be asked for your email and password every time you launch Facebook.