Why you should reset your Facebook password from time to time

In September of 2018, Facebook made an announcement saying that about 50 million accounts were affected by a recent hack. The company issued a warning, asking its users to immediately change their passwords and issued a security patch that supposedly closed the door hackers used to gain access to account information.

Facebook VP of product management Guy Rosen had this to say on the following press conference: “Fifty million accounts were directly affected, and we know the vulnerability was used against them. We did see this attack being used at a fairly large scale. The attackers could use the account as if they are the account holder.”

source: redtri.com

In other words, hackers could do whatever they wanted with the affected accounts, including editing or deleting all the data people had on their accounts. Just this was bad enough, but the fact that all that data can be used for far more sinister purposes is what scared both the experts and Facebook executives. Armed with personal information they stole, hackers could very easily create fake identities based on it and create a living hell for people unfortunate enough to be targeted by this hack. Many of the Facebook users reacted by deleting their accounts, but for some, it isn’t an option.

Facebook has become such a large part of our lives that being unable to log into your account can create some very difficult situation. More and more people use Facebook for business purposes and losing access to your pages can mean a significant loss of profit. Even if you are not using it to conduct business, we all have troves of personal information, pictures, and contacts on our accounts that it can be very dangerous if malicious hackers get access to it. Identity theft is a major issue and it should be taken very seriously.

Even without going into the whole “Facebook sells our private information” issue that has been plaguing the company lately, things could be far worse for you if someone experience in mining Facebook data to steal your identity gets hold of your account information. One of the simplest things you can do to protect yourself is changing your Facebook password regularly. While it doesn’t sound like much, this simple step can save you plenty of headache down the road.

Changing the password is a rather easy and straightforward process, so there is really no excuse on not doing it occasionally. Under settings, choose Security and login option. Next, click Edit next to Change Password. You will enter both your old and new passwords to complete this step. Click Save Changes and you are done. You can even do it if you are not logged in into your Facebook account, by using Find Your Account Page and following the on-screen instruction. If both of these options fail because you forgot your old password, or you just feel adventurous, you can always find one of many guides on how to hack Facebook and follow it.

source: cybersguards.com

Apart from changing your password periodically, you should also take other measures to ensure that your account is safe from hackers. Never use your Facebook password on any other site. There are sites that are notorious for lack of security features and if you use the same password, someone can use it to gain access to your account. Sharing your password is also a major no-no, regardless of how much you trust that person. It just adds another layer of unnecessary risk. When coming up with a password, don’t use the obvious ones, like your name or date of birth. The best passwords are random and contain a mix of lowercase and uppercase letters, with a few numbers thrown in into the mix. None of these matters if your email account you used to create the Facebook account isn’t safe as well, so use this measure there as well. Remember to always log out when using your Facebook account on public computers. If you forget, there is also a remote logout feature available. Try to stay away from various viruses that could steal your password by choosing carefully what you download and keeping your anti-virus software up to date.