Facebook has become very popular in recent years, to the point that practically any user with Internet access owns (or has owned) an account on this popular social network. Just the presence of so many profiles and so much shared personal information has attracted the attention of hackers and scammers, ready to steal access data and the identity of unsuspecting Facebook users, leading to problems even of a legal nature. In this regard, we have created this guide, where we show you the methods used by hackers to carry out password theft on Facebook, so that we can take the appropriate countermeasures to protect our account from unauthorized access. All the suggestions in the guide are very valid to significantly increase safety and are easy to apply even for users who do not chew much computer science.
Article Index
- Facebook password theft via keylogger
- Password discovered by the browser used
- Network packet analysis and hacker techniques
- Increase the security of the Facebook account
- Account Recovery
1) Facebook password theft via keylogger
The most effective method to steal Facebook's password and thus perform identity theft is the hidden installation of a keylogger, that is, a PC program capable of capturing all the keys pressed on the keyboard at a certain time. With this malicious program installed on your computer, all the passwords of our services are at risk and not only that of the Facebook account: with a little cleverness the hacker will have the username and password available to access our account on social networks, compromising our identity.
Keyloggers can be both hardware and software : the former are practically invisible, but require proximity to the PC, while the latter behave like viruses that infect the system. Fortunately, most keyloggers require the physical presence of the hacker near our PC: therefore a good way to protect yourself is to always check who is approaching our position, periodically check the USB ports looking for strange devices that we do not know and avoiding to leave unattended computers or terminals on which we have often accessed from Facebook.
To stop software keyloggers disguised as viruses, simply adopt a good antivirus, such as those recommended in our dedicated guide -> Best Free Antivirus for PC . If instead we want even more security, we will also have to choose a good firewall and a good anti-malware program, so that we can catch any type of threat that has escaped the antivirus (perhaps by applying scans outside the operating system or at startup).
READ ALSO -> Best combination of programs to protect your computer
2) Password discovered by the browser used
One of the simplest methods that the hacker can use to steal the identity on Facebook involves the use of a PC or smartphone in which we have already accessed the profile or in which we have the passwords saved in the browser (internal or by extension). If the password is saved for automatic access, we know that it is very easy to find out the password behind the dots or asterisks.
In this case we will have to take care of locking the PC when we are away from our workstation, perhaps using the tools made available by Windows or dedicated programs, or using an anonymous browser page to access Facebook (especially on a company computer or on a shared public computer). To avoid most of the dangers we invite you to read our guide on incognito navigation, available here -> When to use incognito navigation.
3) Password theft through package analysis
This method quickly fell into disuse as soon as Facebook forced HTTPS connections for all profiles, but in the past years it has been one of the most used methods for stealing Facebook passwords. The hacker connected to a public Wi-Fi network and started a network sniffer, with which he captured all the browsing packages of other users who used the same hotspot network: without encryption, the access data to Facebook could be recovered, it was enough to have only patience. Although now this method is no longer applicable in such a simple way, you can still hack Facebook in different ways on the network, so if we want to increase the browsing security on public networks out of all proportion, we recommend using a VPN service, so as to add a further encryption to our connection.
READ ALSO: How can you hack a Facebook account
4) Increase the security of the Facebook account
If we are afraid of falling victim to an attack on our Facebook profile, we can increase access security by enabling two-factor authentication: in order to enter Facebook, we will also have to enter a special code provided via SMS or via the app during access. In this way, even if the hacker managed to recover the username and password of our Facebook account, in order to access it will also have to have our mobile phone, therefore increasing the risk of being discovered (stealing a device is not as easy as stealing password). If we intend to activate this security system on your Facebook account and on all other risky "hacker" accounts, we invite you to read our dedicated guide -> Secure authentication to access Facebook, Google, Amazon and other services.
In addition to two-factor access, we can increase account security by receiving email notification of access to your Facebook account, so you always know who accesses our profile, in which city and by which method.
READ ALSO: Protect Facebook with security settings
5) Conclusion
Fortunately, hacker methods are counter-stable (in most cases), you just need to be aware of paying a little attention and activating all the necessary countermeasures: hackers are already good at them, let's not make life even easier ! If we are looking for a way to increase the privacy of our Facebook account, we refer you to reading our guide with explanations of the Facebook privacy settings .
If we have already suffered an identity theft and we want to recover our Facebook account, we must intervene promptly by reading the guides below:
- How to recover access to a stolen or hacked account
- Enter Facebook without password if the account has been hacked
