Recently, one of our friends had her Facebook account hacked. The hackers changed her contact details and that was that – her Facebook account was lost forever. There is a simple reason why this happened and why we couldn’t recover her account. Our friend hadn’t turned on Two-Factor Authentication.
The Theft
Our friend had used the same password on multiple web sites. One of these had what we call a ‘data breech’ and her password was shared on the Dark Web for bad people to exploit. Somebody picked this up and stole her Facebook account.
How it could have been prevented
Two-factor authentication is unfortunate jargon. What it means loosely is Two-device or Two-app authentication. You will often see this if you try and make an internet payment, you’ll get a text with a code to your mobile. In this case, your mobile is the second ‘factor’. If our friend had this set up, the bad actor would never have been able to steal the account.
What to do?
If any apps or web sites ask you to set up two-factor authentication, say yes. Set it up. Then relax…
You know it makes sense!
Sussex Smarts 