Is your Facebook account one of 50 million hacked profiles? You could find it for sale on the Dark Web. Here’s the shocking discovery and how to protect yourself.
Facebook could get into trouble very soon. After the hacker attack last week, which involved as many as 50 million users worldwide, there is now another disturbing fact: the violated accounts would now be on sale on the Dark Web.
This is revealed by The Independent, who in these hours has conducted a small investigation on the subject by venturing into the deep meanders of the Dark Web (that part of the network hidden and inaccessible to ordinary users, reachable through the use of certain servers).
Right here lies the dramatic discovery: the data of hacked Facebook accounts would be offered for sale by a $3 auction base.
How to understand if my Facebook has been hacked?
It is estimated that around 50 million Facebook accounts were hacked just seven days ago. Understanding if you’ve been involved in data theft is simple: if last week your account disconnected automatically from all your devices, then congratulations, you’ve been hacked. In fact, it was an emergency measure implemented by Facebook as soon as the attack in progress was resumed.
The risks for those exposed to this massive hacking are many, from identity theft, exploiting sensitive data of individual users for criminal purposes, to blackmailing through private information, up to the simple sale of information to third parties for other types of exploitation.
Facebook hacker attacks: how to protect yourself
Anyone who suspects that their Facebook account has been involved in last week’s hacker attack can protect themselves through small, simple steps. The information below also applies to all users who want to be sure they have a hacked account.
The most trivial solution, if you noticed something strange in your Facebook profile, is to immediately change the password associated with the account. Doing it is simple and takes a few minutes: make sure you do not use the same security word for other accounts, hackers could easily make two and two and steal sensitive data for other profiles.
Once this is done, it is good to activate a special form of protection called two-factor authentication (also known as 2FA ). How to do it? For Facebook it’s very simple:
- connect on the social network;
- login;
- click the drop-down menu at the top right, so to speak the arrow pointing down next to the question mark;
- click on settings -> security and access;
- scroll to find the item “use two-factor authentication” and click on “edit”;
- choose a verification method, ignore the SMS preferring a dedicated app like Google Authenticator (available on both iOS and Android );
- approve the access attempt through the app (QR Code or alphanumeric code);
- enter the recovery code that appeared (it will change every twenty seconds, do not be afraid);
- after the confirmation message, the two-factor authentication will be active on your profile.
The 2FA is an additional security system that protects your personal data and your digital identity: you can not use it only on Facebook in fact, it is also valid for other services such as Twitter, Paypal, Google and Amazon.