Hacking can ruin someone’s reputation and result in thousands of dollars in lost advertising revenue. That’s exactly what happened to Dale Berry, the owner of a preschool English academy in Japan who had his Facebook account compromised by scammers. Hackers used his account to create fraudulent ads, destroying the business of his owner and destroying his reputation.
The hackers initially targeted users who had weak passwords such as “qwerty” and “password.” Once they have access to an account, they check the top five most popular friends and pretend to be one of them to ask for a password reset code. The hackers then use a security feature which lets users add trusted contacts to their account in the event that they forget their password. They can request these trusted friends to give them the one-time code to gain access to the account.
Purchase of stolen login information is another method hackers can gain access. A cache of 26 million Amazon, LinkedIn and Facebook passwords was recently found available for sale on the dark web. Many of these were leaked via custom Trojan malware that infiltrated millions of Windows-based computers between app-ink.net/virtual-deal-room-software-can-help-to-estimate-enterprise-value-during-ma-activity 2018 and 2020.
Users can protect themselves from attacks by checking that the address bar on their browser is Facebook and not another website. Users should create a password that combines letters, numbers, and spaces and never reuse it for another email or social media accounts. In addition users should keep track of their activity notifications regularly. Twitter is an example. It sends a notification when there’s an unusual login from a new device or location.