10+ Tips to protect your Facebook profile from virus and hacking

facebookThe months September and October were not good for Facebook’s security system because of the virus that hit Facebook. But it’s more important for an individual Facebook user to protect his/her own profile from these viruses than that for Facebook developers itself as some of the viruses or an attempt to hack your profile can use your profile to share explicit content on Facebook.

Well you don’t need to worry for your protection, rather just keep important things in mind but first of all you should be familiar with the ways you should protect your profile.

Attacks and Viruses:

>>Fake home page: This was the first major attack on facebook this year. A strange link was spread on the whole Facebook which leads you to a page similar to the login page with same design as Facebook but the URL was different. The link attackers used were similar to facebook.com. That means you are giving your user id and password to any other website which redirects you to your actual Facebook profile after entering your id and password.

>>Password reset E-Mails: A recent attack on Facebook which sends user an e-mail to reset your password. These e-mails were actually sent to infect the computer. To know more read: The latest Facebook virus via password reset e-mails.

>>Virus in Facebook inbox: Again a recent attack on Facebook. This sends profile friends a personal message which contains a link that re-directs you to an infected page. The link was actually sent by a hacked Facebook profile. Most of the links are now blacklisted with Malware warnings on them.

>>Facebook used on a public shared PC: This can be a reason of your Hacked public profile as well even if you logged out from your Facebook account.

PROTECTION:

>Never share your password with anyone, not even with your best friends.

>While logging in, always check that the login page is facebook.com not facebookie or anything else.

>Never click on any link on Facebook, specially those which used an URL shortener unless and until it is properly attached with the post/message.

>Always delete cookies and clear the cache after using Facebook from a public shared computer.

>Never left your profile logged in, somebody can misuse it just for fun.

>Never ignore a warning from official Facebook.

>Reset your password weekly or monthly. Reset your password immediately in case of strange activities.

>Don’t download any file from Facebook as it can’t be official. Facebook is a social networking site not a file sharing system.

>Don’t delete your hacked profile it can be recovered easily however you may deactivate your profile. For a hacked account read this official help.

>Keep your system clean from malwares, malwares can be used to read the password while logging in.

>Enter your personal details only when it’s asked by official Facebook even if it’s an E-Mail, check for it’s sender.

Just keep these tips in mind and enjoy Facebooking 😉

4 Comments

rajeelkp November 24, 2009

Good post man.Hopes these tips would helps us to reduce the risk, while ‘facebooking’

madhavi August 2, 2010

Hi,

please do help me, somone is misusing my profile picture and name on facebook,i sent him the mesage to delete,he is not listening to me,i have been reported to the facebook team as well.Nothing has been done till now,Pls do help me what should i do?

Sauravjit August 3, 2010

Report it “using my pic” under fake profile….