2 Easy ways to prevent hacking of your FB account

    Have your Facebook account ever been hacked? Or ever heard about a hacked FB account? To many this sound like a rhetoric questions that expect an obvious answer yes and that how vulnerable we are as far as our social media accounts are concerned. The outcry from quite a good number of my Facebook friends has reached me hence a decision to offer a very simple to follow guidance on ways to prevent hacking that will frustrate malicious acts of many hackers. But also if you have not heard about this or you have never been a culprit of these malicious and annoying acts, it would be highly advisable to take precaution and follow these simple steps that will prevent hackers from intruding your accounts.

 1. Choose a strong password

 A strong password will minimize unauthorized access into your FB account. Setting a such a password will only cost you a few minutes but can guarantee you a life time security and safety.

A strong password should have the following qualities.

• At least eight characters long
• A mix-up of upper case and lower case letters, numbers and special characters eg #U@s7_T3x
•  Should not include your date of birth, phone numbers, National ID numbers which can easily be found in the dictionary.
• Should be unique-You have never used it else where
• Should not include your nicknames or anything favorite to you that can easily be known by your friends.
• Should not be the same as the username
• Should be changed regularly

Steps with images to choose a strong password

1. Login into your facebook account by entering your email or phone and your password

• Click settings on your right hand

• Click security and login on your left

• Choose a strong password by editing your password here

2. Enable two factor authentication

  This is a crucial security mechanism that will really secure you and one of the best among various ways to prevent hacking of your account. If enabled, Facebook will ask for a verification code via the security method that you had chosen if they notice a login from an unrecognized device or browser. Facebook have several methods of two factor authentication like using your phone number, authentication app, security keys and recovery codes. For now, I will guide on using your phone number as a security method. Before I outline the steps briefly let me explain how it works.

Using your phone as a security method for two factor authentication

If enabled, Facebook will send  a verification code in form of sms into the phone number that you had added  any time you login in to your account or even any other person. This means, if you enter the correct password you will not access your account until you enter the code sent to you. So if  hackers happen to know your or guess you password, they cant login until they access your phone which is almost impossible. Therefore, you ought to add your phone number that you are authorized to read the messages. Facebook will do this often as you login or if they notice a login from an unrecognized device or browser. But to save your time you can save the browser in your phone.

Steps with images to enable two factor authentication

1. Login into your facebook account by entering your email or phone and your password (see image above)

2. Click settings on your right hand (see image above)

3. Click security and login on your left (see image above)

4. Click edit beside use two factor authentication

5.Enter password to confirm and continue with two factor

6.Click use text message as your security method

7.Add phone number and click continue

8.Enter the verification code sent to you and continue

9. Hurray! You have just enabled two factor authentication. Have fun using your Facebook page or accounts