Facebook is the undoubtedly the dominant force in social media. It is the online market leader with over 2.8 billion users, and for millions of people, it is their primary means of interaction with others on the internet. To many people, their Facebook account holds massive value, due to these interactions, their posts, and the conversations they have with others through the platform.
Such popularity though is also what attracts hackers to your account. For anyone looking to spy on you, damage your reputation, or impersonate you, getting access to your Facebook account is massively important. If we log onto our account on a different computer or phone, we simply close the window when done. This often does not log you out of your account though, meaning anyone coming after you now potentially has access to your account.
If you feel someone else has been in your account or snooping through your personal content, it is time to boot them out. This starts with disconnecting all sessions which are logged on, leaving only those which you recognise and are happy to leave. This will kick your hacker out right away.
If they have somehow managed to steal your password though, they can obviously just log back in. That’s why the the next step is to change your password. Passwords can be fun, so try come up with something long and strong. Think of it more as a ‘passphrase’, i.e. 3 or 4 words in length, with a good mix of uppercase, lowercase, number and symbols.
The last step is to turn on Two Factor Authentication. This is where your phone becomes an important part of the log in process. Whenever you go to log into your account, you will be asked to provide a code from an app on your phone. This means that, even if someone does manage to steal or get hold of your password again, without having your phone physically in their hand, it is still impossible for them to log in.
Install a Two Factor Authentication (2FA) app on your phone, then go into your Facebook security settings. In here you can enable 2FA and your account is safe from login attempts.
If you find though that you cannot log into your Facebook account, that someone has locked you out, go to https://www.facebook.com/hacked to get Facebooks help in getting your account back.