WHAT TO DO IF YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA IS HACKED: AN EASY-TO-FOLLOW GUIDE FOR 2022

We live in a society where almost everybody with an android phone or an IOS device uses social media. Social media enables us to keep in touch with friends and family. If one morning you wake up to find out that your social media is hacked out of the blues, I’m sure you wouldn’t be happy. This article will provide guidelines on what to do if you are hacked on social media.

What To Do If your Social Media is Hacked

Have you ever tried logging in to your Facebook account, and you get a response that the password you are inputting is wrong? Or maybe you were suddenly blocked from your Instagram account and are confused about what and why this is happening. The answer is not far-fetched. You might have been hacked! When your social media is hacked, it does not mean that the matter ends there. There are several things you can do to remedy the problem.

1. Check-In: First of all, check-in. Try logging in again on the social media platform or app; the hacker may make unauthorized posts on your social media logs into your account without changing the password. If, by chance, your password remains the same, then quickly change it to avoid a future recurrence. The best type of passwords to input are passwords made of alphabets, numbers, and punctuation marks.
2. Forgotten Passwords: If your social media account gets hacked and your password has been changed, you can try to recover it by using the procedure for users who have forgotten their passwords. You will, however, need to own the phone number or email address used to open your social media account during registration or Sign up. When you click “forgot password,” a link will be sent to your email address or phone number. You can now use the link to reset your password and recover your account.
3. Report The Social Media Account: If your social media gets hacked, you can report the account. Reporting a hacked account differs from one social media platform to another. You can visit the “help page” on Instagram to register your hacked account. You will need to locate the “report an account” option on Facebook. To report your hacked account on LinkedIn, go to the login page, and click on forgot password, after which you will be provided different options. Choose the “report account” option.
4. Two-Factor Authentication: When your social media account is hacked, and you were able to reset the password and also recover your account, you should add a layer of extra security to safeguard your account. To avoid a future recurrence, change your password and input a new one which should consist of alphabets, numbers, and punctuation marks. After that, the next thing to do is activate the two-factor authentication. This process differs from one social media platform to another. On Facebook, go to security and login settings, locate two-factor authentication, click on edit, choose the security method you want to use, and then follow the instructions provided there. To activate the two-factor authentication on Instagram, tap on the hamburger icon, go to settings, tap on security, click on two-factor authentication, click on get started and follow the instructions.
5. After you have recovered your account, reset your password, and turned on the two-factor authentication, you should also ensure that you log out of all other devices you have previously used so as not to get hacked on social media again.

Conclusion

We all love social media, and we use it daily to keep in touch with friends and family and sometimes even conduct our businesses. When your social media is hacked, you will be unhappy. Thankfully, this article has explained in simple steps and language how to address the issue and has also provided tips on preventing your account from getting hacked.

Author Bio - Hi, I am Mohd Zaid Mansoori, a blogger, content writer, and outreach specialist. Over the years I have learned a lot about technology and still learning something new every day.