Of all the social media platforms that are popular and active, Facebook is one of the firsts. When it had just launched, Facebook revolutionized the way people communicated online. It was amazing what a simple account sign up could bring to you. Out for public use since September of 2006, the social networking website has seen no decline in favoritism. Despite conflicts Facebook had to face in recent years, it is still reigning as the most used networking site with around 2.45 billion users globally.
However, the disputes regarding Facebook are nothing to brush off. Consider the fact that you and your friends share everything on Facebook. A lot of personal data and messages pass through the website’s server in the span of minutes. Imagine all that data falling in a third party’s hands and what they could do with it. All of these details not only put your identity at risk, but you actually end up being more susceptible to hacking as well.
In fact, hacking a Facebook account is complicated. But it could also be as simple as running software on your computer. Let us discuss the ways in which someone could hack your Facebook account and the ways in which you can prevent it.
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How To Hack Someone’s Facebook Account?
Using a Keylogger
A keylogger is a software that records your keyboard strokes as they are made. This is also done by someone close to the target and most often without their knowledge. This software is to be downloaded and installed manually on their device. Once installed, it starts recording keystrokes in the background from when the computer is turned on. The software can be customized to send the logs to an email address. There are many software offerings under this category.
Hardware keyloggers also work in the same way; except they work once the USB drive containing the software is connected to the device. Instead of an email, the USB drive itself will save a summary of your keystrokes. Many options exist here as well, such as Keyllama or something more sophisticated like Wi-Fi enabled keyloggers.
How to Protect Yourself
- Use a firewall. This is essential because keyloggers use the internet to send information, and a firewall will monitor as well as block access if it figures out something is wrong.
- Use a trusted password manager. Password managers store your passwords so that they autofill the field whenever required. Doing so ensures you never type the password meaning that the keylogger cannot record it.
- Change passwords frequently. This is one sure way to disable the power of hackers over your online accounts.
Read – How to Remove Shortcut Virus From USB Drive
Phishing
This method is actually different and more difficult to stop than the previous one. Phishing is when you create a login page identical to the one you are about to hack. In this case, the login page looks exactly like Facebook. The details entered into this page will be sent to the hacker, directly. The easy part about phishing is that you can send it to your victim’s screen in multiple ways. The difficult part is that you need to create a web hosting account and create a fake login page exactly like Facebook.
How to Protect Yourself
- The easiest and most important way: don’t click on links you don’t trust. Check the URL carefully.
- Install an ad-blocker. Phishing isn’t done only through mails. Ads and pop-ups are other common ways that hackers can use to target you
- Use anti-virus software vigilantly and follow web security protocols.
Reset the Password
It is just very easy for anyone to hack your account by clicking on the ‘reset password’ button. Most often, it is done by people close to you.
- The first step in this is figuring out the email id used to login to Facebook. If you don’t already know this, search the ‘contact info’ section on their Facebook page. If even that fails, use tools like TheHarvester that hackers use to mine for email addresses.
- Click on ‘Forgot Password’ and then enter the email address. Click on ‘This is my account’.
- Facebook asks if you would like to reset the password via the email address. Since that is not possible, press ‘No longer have access to these?’
- It will then inquire ‘How can we reach you?’ Here you will have to enter an address that is not linked to any other Facebook account.
- It will ask a security question. This is easy or difficult depending on how well you know the person.
- If none of this worked for you, then there is the final option of asking your friends for help. Facebook will ask you to select 3 to 5 friends who will receive passwords that you enter into the next page.
How to Protect Yourself
- Use a separate email address for your Facebook and do not list it on the site
- Ensure the security questions are unique and cannot be guessed even by good friends.
Man in the Middle Attack
A Man in the Middle attack is when you trick your victim into connecting to a WIFI connection that is not secure. Once connected, you can view the pages they visit and can even lead them to visit fake login pages, as seen above. A Man in the Middle attack is difficult to spot unless your victim is aware of them.
How to Protect Yourself
- Never connect to any open networks. This means that the data you send over this network is unencrypted and is hacker-bait.
- If possible use a VPN when using WiFi on Airports & Coffee shops.
- If there is any problem connecting to your internet, check if there are identical names nearby.
- Do not connect to networks that are named suspiciously.
- Be wary of where you enter your internet account details as a page you do not recognize, or a page with grammatical and spelling errors might mean that somebody is trying to steal your information.
We hope you all remain alert and informed!
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