How to secure your Facebook account from hackers in 5 simple steps?

5 simple methods to secure your Facebook account

Facebook , the social network created by Mark Zuckerberg is the daily target of numerous attacks taking place in the online world. A recent report showed that the Facebook account of the creator was hacked by a Palestine citizen to show the vulnerability in the Facebook security measures. Although Facebook authorities replied to this report by saying that have solved the issue , it is not sure whether we will be having a issue in the future or not! Here is my simple tips to secure your Facebook account.

1. Use a secure password

The password is the first line of defense against unauthorized access to your Facebook account. To avoid making any mistakes, it is strongly recommended that you use a secure password by using a combination of letters and numbers, be sure to use uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and symbols in your password which makes it difficult even for your family members to guess your password . Change your password regularly, every month, if possible.You should also make sure that your password is used only for Facebook!

2. Check your privacy settings

When was the last time you checked your privacy settings on Facebook? Facebook privacy settings allows you to choose who can view your Facebook contents. By default the privacy is set to public, you can change it to "friends" , "friends of friends" etc. It is better you use the "friends" option. So what ever you share on Facebook will be visible only to your friends.   

3. Stop using your Facebook account to log in to websites

Most websites offer the now famous "Login with your Facebook account." option to login to their websites and create accounts with them. There is no problem by default, the websites won't be able to see your Facebook password. The problem is that by doing so you are providing the opportunity to hack your Facebook account. There are malicious websites that track your keystrokes while you login to the website with your Facebook password. Instead of  doing that you can use a disposable email account if all you want to do is test an online service. With this method, you run into no risk!

If you still wan't to use a Facebook account to login to websites then create a new Facebook account for this purpose only and don't use your original Facebook account password here.

4. Disconnect applications connected to your Facebook account .

On Facebook, your name, your profile picture, your cover picture, gender, networks, your user name etc are public information and can be accessed by anyone. But when you are using Facebook applications with your account , your private information will be available to them. The things that you share with your friends, your likes etc will be available to the applications. So disconnect the applications associated with your Facebook account to secure your account.

5. Log out of Facebook after use

Your Internet browser has a bad habit of remembering your passwords. Although it can save time and help you not remember your passwords, it may help hackers get your password from the web browser. Make it a habit to log out of your Facebook account when leaving the computer.

Conclusion

Of course, these 5 tips will not intimidate the best hacker in the world! They are just little common sense advice that is always good to remember. 

Spam shifts to social networks - the rise of spam bots

Summary: It is 35 years since the first spam email was sent. And even though, the share of spam, it remains a persistent phenomenon. Especially now spam increasingly shifting to social networks.

It is 35 years since the first spam email was sent. And even though, the share of spam, it remains a persistent phenomenon. Especially now spam increasingly shifting to social networks.

According to the specialized company Pingdom the share of spam in email traffic overall is 69 percent.. That seems a lot, though that figure is declining because two years ago it was 89 percent.

Social

Spam was experienced some three to five years ago as a major problem but it seems that spam is returning in the form of social networks. Sophisticated and better spam filters and legal actions have led companies to put spam more or less under control.  But we still have to watch for a new trend: more and more spam is to be found on social media, like Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram.

Because social media often seem more personal than email, spammers play their advantage. They abuse the trust, since social media users often  expects a 'real' message from a friend. Social media see the phenomenon with sad face.  Facebook and Trend Micro are joining hands to beat spam by filtering and intercepting all kinds of posts made by millions of users worldwide.

Especially Twitter seems to have the phenomenon of spam more than facebook and google plus. The social network does not always seems to be able to act decisively against all types of spam that we encounter there. Very prominent are the so-called direct mail messages from friends with links that lead to certain websites  that can actually be labeled as phishing websites.

Research by Fish eye Analytics shows that currently 7 percent of all Twitter users are spam bots.  So if you really think you are dealing with a human being not only in your mailbox, but also on Twitter and Facebook you better watch out for spam or spam bots.

Vodafone EasyBox router hacked by criminals for making anonymous VOIP calls.

Vulnerability: criminals hijacked Vodafone EasyBox router.

Harassment calls and expensive calls to international numbers: Hacker exploits  the vulnerability of routers from Vodafone, hijacks and misuses the equipment. Vodafone knew the weak spot in routers for months and wasn't able to prevent it.   Although the company reports that the vulnerability will be fixed in the end of August.

Hamburg,Germany - Vodafone now officially reports the serious vulnerability in their own routers, as a "potential vulnerability". Unknown attacker exploited the vulnerability in the routers for a longtime to bombard others with harassment calls and all other type of illegal activities since the calls can't be traced. 

An it service provider in the Krefeld city reports that his company was bombarded with calls from unknown person. He tried to locate the owner of the phone number from which he got calls and came to know that they were all Vodafone customers and users of the Vodafone  EasyBox router. 

Vodafone: All hacking attempts intercepted and blocked.

Vodafone reported to the affected customers were that the company have intercepted and blocked all hacking attempts further made by hackers.  Vodafone assured, that none of the customers had any financial loss due to these activities made by the criminals.

Obviously someone in the Krefeld city knew the vulnerability in the EasyBox router  and  cracked it. This is possible within the region of each WLANs without having access to home or office or breaking and entering anyone's home.

  

The Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (BSI) has warned in early August that such attacks are possible. Currently, it is still unclear how the perpetrators could miss broke the router for calls. 

According to Vodafone, the EasyBox models 600-602 and 800-803 are concerned, they have been produced before August 2011. BSI and Vodafone are going to provide info pages ,notes, on how to secure the routers. Vodafone promises to deliver an updated system software for the devices involved in the hacking attempt made in last week of August. Although Vodafone knew about this vulnerability since December 2012 but the company pointed it out  it was verified by the company by consulting the security experts SEC.