You may also be thinking, once they’re in, how much damage can they do really? It’s Facebook. Fun to scroll through while on the loo and watch silly videos of goofy pets.

But….

Are you an admin of your business Facebook page? If yes, things just got a little more serious.

Someone with access to your personal Facebook page now has access to your business too, and often this includes things like payment information for the running of ads, as well as being able to freely upload messages to the internet as if they’re you. They could send a phishing link to all of your clients to trick them into giving their details, and they can lock you out, so that any way you have of tackling their actions will take a lot longer than it can take them to do serious damage.

Ways to keep your Facebook account secure

Protect your password

We’ve talked before about password best practices, and how to make them more secure. Ultimately you might think you’re being clever by setting your Facebook password as ManchesterUn1ted! But if you’ve liked a load of Manchester United themed Facebook posts, that can be visible to someone with shady intentions trying to log in, and it’ll be one of the first things they can try – no need for any fancy hacking, just good old fashioned guesswork.

Don’t share login credentials

Never share your login with anyone else – even if you think you can trust them. If someone else needs access to your business page, perhaps they’re helping you with social media posts, you can give them special permissions via their own personal login, there’s no need to share yours.

Stay vigilant for phishing scams

Cyber criminals out to scam may create fake websites that look like Facebook and ask you to log in. This is just a way for them to get your username and password. If you recieve an email appearing to be from Facebook with a link asking you to log in, double check the website’s URL. If in doubt, directly type www.facebook.com into your URL bar to make extra sure. It’s worth noting that Facebook will never ask for your password in an email.

Don’t accept dodgy friend requests

We’re not talking about Keith who lives down the road and takes his role as head of Neighbourhood Watch very seriously, but people you don’t know at all. Scammers will often create accounts purely to befriend people, but this leaves you vulnerable to being tagged in spam posts, which also puts your friends list at risk.

What if your Facebook account is cloned?

Adding people you don’t know to your friends list, can also have other less-than-desirable consequences. It gives them access to private information such as your friends list and images, which could allow them to clone your Facebook account. This means they create a new account and make it look as much like yours as possible, before adding select people on your friends list who they think might be likely to fall for someone pretending to be you. These are often – although not always – older people, and it can be extremely distressing for them. You might also not get to know about this deception until it’s too late.

How to report a cloned Facebook account

For all their faults, Facebook are usually pretty swift at removing cloned accounts. You, or your friends who can see the profile can do the following (you don’t have to be friends with the cloned account to do so.)

  1. Go to the cloned profile.
  2. Click on the three dots below the cover photo
  3. Select Find support or report profile
  4. From there, follow the instructions for impersonation to file a report.

Use the extra security options Facebook has available

Facebook has a whole host of extra security options designed to keep you safe. These range from being able to see which devices are logged in to your account and getting alerts when someone tries to log in from an unrecognised device, to multi-factor authentication (also referred to as two factor authentication.)

Although any additional security you can add is great, the main one we recommend is multi factor authentication. It’s really simple to do, but will add enough of a road block to stop your profile from being an easy target, keeping both your profile and any pages you manage safe.

Setting up multi factor authentication on Facebook

  1. Go to the Facebook security and login page
  2. Scroll down to two factor authentication
  3. If ‘use two-factor authentication’ is OFF, click on the edit button

Two factor authentication basically means that you need two bits of information to log in. You can decide whether you get a code via text, tap your security key on a compatible device to confirm that it’s you, or use a log in code generated by a third-party authentication app. For the majority of people, SMS codes are the simplest method.

Once you’ve set it up, you can also confirm that your device is exempt from needing to provide the second piece of info upon login, but anyone else who tries will also need your phone in order to be able to get in.

This is a lot of information, but please don’t worry. Social media can be great for personal enjoyment as well as business networking and marketing, with a few simple steps, it doesn’t need to be scary! If you have any further questions or would like help making sure that your social media profiles don’t become a weak point of entry to your business, please do contact us and we’ll be happy to help.