My Facebook got hacked. What do I do now?

1.  Change your passwords!

First thing you need to do is change your passwords for all of your accounts that share the same password. (You should NEVER reuse the same password) Most people can't remember more than 7 passwords. To make matters worse people use the same passwords with slight variations. This does not work. In a matter of minutes a malicious actor can generate a list of probable passwords based on one compromised password. Consider using a service like https://www.lastpass.com/ Lastpass can help you manage all of your passwords across many devices.

2. ENABLE 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication)

Enable 2FA on all of your most important accounts. This is where you use a second method to verify your identity when you sign in. This is extremely important! This can prevent some serious headaches in the event of another hack or breach. If you want to take it a step further you can also enable MFA; multi factor authentication. This is even harder to break. You can get a pair of physical keys called Yubi Keys. You have to physically have the key in order to login into your account. With the extra key you want to make a backup just in case you lose your first key. https://amzn.to/3NDCOoJ 

3. Contact support at Facebook let them know.

Facebook support is useless when it comes to helping in this category, but still submit a claim and let them know what happened. They usually take a few days to respond and most likely your account will come back up. Link for Facebook support is here. 

4. Let others know!

Let your friends and family members know that your account has been compromised and that they should avoid clicking any links the account might send. Do this with texts or just call people. Or ask a friend with a Facebook account to let their friends know. However you go about it just let other people know. When accounts get taken over hackers usually use the account to scam other people or get access to more accounts.

5. Figure out how it happened.

Nine times out of ten…you hacked yourself, well not actually but you probably clicked a link that looked like Facebook and signed in. It was not Facebook that you signed into, it was a fake page designed to steal your password. This is called phishing and it's a huge problem. Major companies dump loads of cash into training their users to understand what phishing looks like. Check out this quick training guide here.

6. It may not have been phishing…check to see if your data has been leaked.

If you feel as though you have not been phished into giving away your password it could be much worse. This is where steps one and two come in. If you have been a part of a data breach you might have more than one account compromised. Check to see if you have been a part of a data breach here. All you have to do is drop in your email and it will give you a complete list of any data breaches your email may have been involved in.

7. Update everything!

Yes, do it now, do not wait! Update your phone and all of its apps as well as your computer. It's extremely important to keep all of your devices updated. Most of the updates released by companies and apps are focused on security patches. Android and iphone both have a setting for automatic updates. TURN THEM ON. This helps greatly reduce the ways a hacker can control or steal information from your devices.

8. Get help!

If any step in the process is difficult for you, seek out help. First start by going to your most tech friendly family member or co-worker who can help you with these steps. If you don't have either of those be sure to contact info@adastrasec.com We can help you increase your security posture and prevent scams and hackers from malicious activities.