Due to the rapid increase of security risks being churned out within Facebook, the Facebook Security Team introduces Anti-virus Marketplace and some other ways to help the whole community deal with the vulnerabilities they are currently facing. A few months ago, nearly 100,000 Facebook users’ log in information were allegedly released and compromised due to a possible hack attack. So we should really be careful because we will never determine when an attack might actually happen. Facebook is a very big corporation but it is not exempted in security risks. Recently, Facebook banned some URL shortening services in the likes of ad.fly in their site through a URL Blacklist System because they are being used in spamming activities and attacks to users that are not knowledgeable in the danger they might encounter just by clicking a malicious link. Everyday, they develop different tactics just to make their way in the most popular social networking site in the world.
What will Facebook do?
As a response to the ever-growing spam, threats, and viruses spreading throughout the site, Facebook will team-up with the computer security giants namely: McAfee, Symantec, Sophos, TrendMicro, and lastly, Microsoft. This collaboration then results in the emergence of the Antivirus Marketplace.
Antivirus Marketplace
In the marketplace, a Facebook user can download any fully functional Antivirus software available and they can use it in six (6) months. These programs will help secure your computer and your information through its powerful security checks. It covers all files as well as multimedia files and softwares so that it may reduce the possibilities of a hack.
What can you do?
While making your account bullet proof from harm may not be fully possible, you can take some safety precaution to protect it to the extent that it cannot be easily penetrated.
Change Passwords Often
This may sound irritating but we should change passwords often BOTH in your Facebook and Email account. Ok, to clear that up, I don’t mean changing it every week or every month. Once in a couple of months is suggested. Why include your Email? Simply because it is the most important account you have in the internet! This is where you keep your passwords on your different accounts. Also, it is the destination of “forgot your password” emails so that means if somebody cracked your Email account, all of your accounts may be dead buddy.
Upon changing your password, you should also include and mix both uppercase and lowercase letters with numbers in your password (ex. n0Yp16e3ks). For better security, you can add some symbols (ex. ?!”:;'()&%/*-@#+=) in the beginning, middle, or end of your password whichever you prefer. Don’t and NEVER use easy to guess passwords in any of your accounts. An obvious example is using your name or username as the password. I also suggest doing some variation in your passwords in different accounts so that they won’t hit one and take them all. Oh, another thing, Facebook now has a security blog that has relevant information about elimination of risks so follow them regularly.
These are just some of the few ways you can do to secure your online accounts. And if you love them, better act now or you might regret not doing this in the near future.
If you have more tips that you can add, kindly share them below. Now that you’ve read through this post, please share this post to your friends so that they can be aware of the possible vulnerabilities they may have and to help them prevent their information and privacy from being compromised.
I’d like to add that you can also make a paraphrase password so you don’t need to make it complicated with special character. paraphrase password are usually 16 character long which makes the length enough security.