Facebook Messenger Hack

We have seen that a number of people have had hacking attempts made on their Facebook accounts recently. One of the main types of hacking attempts that appears to be doing the rounds again begins on Facebook Messenger.

It mostly involves you receiving a message in Messenger, almost always from someone you are already friends with, along the lines of:

“Saw thatt videoo yessterday… How couuld you do suuch a thiing?”

or

“Woww! Is thhat reallly you in thaat videoo?”

or

“Hey, I have this hilarious video of you dancing. Your face is so red. You should check it out”

The message will usually also contain a tiny link, which more often than not is to a pornographic video. If you click on the link, you may be exposed to a virus and your account may then be vulnerable.

Although, this current hack takes you to what looks like Facebook’s login page. But, it is a fake. If you attempt to login then the fake page will collect your username and password and will then have the potential to access your account. It will then usually login to your account and send a similar message to all of your friends, in the hope of gaining more and more credentials.

How to better protect yourself

For starters, don’t click on the link! Think about who has sent you the message - would they usually message you? Can you ask them outside of Facebook if they have messaged you? If you have any doubts, then it is probably best to ignore the message.

Set up two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication is a security feature that helps you protect your Facebook account in addition to your password. By setting up two-factor authentication, you will be asked to enter a special login code or confirm your login attempt every time someone tries accessing Facebook from a browser or mobile device Facebook don’t recognise as you. You can also set up alerts when someone tries logging in from a browser or mobile device Facebook doesn’t recognise.

To turn on or manage two-factor authentication in Facebook:

1. Go to your Security and Login Settings (found via Settings & Privacy on a mobile)
2. Scroll down to ‘Use two-factor authentication’ and click Edit
3. Choose the security method you want to add and follow the on-screen instructions.

The two choices you will have are:

• Login codes from a third party authentication app
• Text message (SMS) codes from your mobile phone

For further information, check out this page: https://www.facebook.com/help/148233965247823

Stay safe out there.