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Imagine waking up one morning to find your social media account hijacked—your name, your photos, your entire online identity now controlled by a faceless cybercriminal lurking in the shadows. They’re not just messing around; they have an agenda.
With millions of people and businesses pouring their lives onto social media, these platforms have become prime hunting grounds for hackers and digital predators. Think it won’t happen to you? Think again. How many people do you know who have had their accounts hacked?
These cyberthieves aren’t in it for fun—they’re after you. Some steal accounts to resell on the dark web, others mine your private data for identity theft, and the really nasty ones use your profile to spread spam, scams, or worse—tricking your friends and family into becoming their next victims.
The digital world is a battleground, but you don’t have to be an easy target. Here’s how to lock down your social media accounts before the hackers come knocking.
If you’re one of the billions scrolling through Facebook, tweeting on X (formerly Twitter), networking on LinkedIn, posting selfies on Instagram, or dancing on TikTok, listen up—hackers are lurking. Here’s how to keep your social media accounts locked down and out of their reach.
- Use a Strong Password
- Keep your Password Protected
- Don’t Reuse Passwords
- Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
- Beware Phishing Emails
- Be Cautious With 3rd Party Apps
Use a Strong Social Media Password
First off, let’s talk about password strength.
If your password is something simple that can be guessed easily, then there’s a very high chance that you will be hacked.
Don’t use passwords like “123456”, “password123”, or your name or pet’s name followed by 123.
Instead, your password shouldn’t be a word at all—it should be a minimum of eight random characters that are a mixture of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
There should be no pattern to this, and it needs to be completely random.
Something like this: *&85Mi0!R2#
Keep Your Password Protected
We’ve all been stuck in ‘password hell’ trying to remember our passwords.
If you are worried about remembering complex passwords, a password manager such as KeePass or LastPass can help keep your complex passwords organized for you.
You might be amazed just how many people still keep their passwords listed in plain-text files on their computer or on their office desk using Post-It notes.
If you do this, then you are opening yourself up for people to get access to all your important accounts.
Also, be careful about sharing certain personal information on social media.
We have recently seen “cute” polls or threads that encourage you to share something like a memory of the street you grew up on or your first pet.
These are often the same as your security questions for your password to be reset.
If you share this information online, someone may be able to steal the info and use it to change your password and hack your account.
If you need to share your password with someone, we recommend using a tool such as PassEncrypt. This allows you to securely transfer sensitive text information.
Don’t Reuse Passwords
We know how tempting it is to use the same password for everything.
When you are creating a new account on a retailer’s website, do you use the same password as your Facebook or email account?
It doesn’t matter where you’re creating the account or which password you are reusing, the issue is that you are reusing a password. This will definitely put you at risk.
If that password was compromised on one site, it could affect any other accounts that you have used that password for.
Every online account you’ve ever created should have a different password. Yes, I hear the collective groan—right along with the sound of you definitely reusing the same password from 2012.
Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
Another way to protect your account is with two-factor authentication (2FA).
This requires an extra step in the sign-in process to verify that you are indeed the user.
A typical two-factor authentication is to have you log in (first authentication) and then send an access code to your smartphone or your email that you have to enter to continue (second authentication).
Even if a hacker can steal your first level of security – your password – they typically won’t have access to your text messages to do the second level of security with the security code.
This can be added to most social media, including Facebook. In fact, Facebook or Meta is now requiring it.
Beware Phishing Emails
A very common method that hackers use to access accounts is through phishing.
Phishing is when someone sends a “fake” email pretending to be from a legitimate company in order to trick you into giving them your login credentials.
For example, you may receive an email with a link pretending to be from Instagram, when really it is from a fake website instead.
Clicking this fake link will take you to a page that is made to look like Instagram, for example, and it will prompt you to log in. When you enter your login information it will record this data.
At this point they have successfully tricked you into giving them your account details. They can then use that to gain access to your account.
To help prevent hacking on social media via phishing, we’ve listed out several steps that we recommend you take before clicking any links or entering any information.
- Check the sending email address. Sometimes it can display a name over the top of it (like Instagram) but when you click on the name, it will display a full email address that is very clearly fraudulent.
- What are you being asked to do in the email? If the message is asking you to login or “verify your account”, you can delete the message and know that it is very likely phishing.
Another type of email that can be an attempted phishing scam, are emails informing you that your account password has been changed, or your account is suspended.
Check the address to make sure it is coming from the actual domain such as @instagram.com.
If you don’t feel comfortable, you can always go to the social media site and securely change your password.
Note: Most social media platforms will send a verification email when you create an account to confirm it's really you. They’ll also use email to send password reset links if you ever need to regain access to your account.
Always check these emails carefully to ensure they’re legitimate before clicking any links!
Be Cautious With 3rd Party Apps
Just like you wouldn’t allow a total stranger into your house, you shouldn’t let unknown third-party apps have access to your social media.
This can include popular apps by other developers such as social media post schedulers for businesses.
The moment you hand over access to your account, you’re practically rolling out the red carpet for scammers to exploit your trust—especially if the app you’re using was crafted by a hacker with bad intentions.
With millions of people in the U.S. actively using social media (a number that’s been climbing for over a decade), cybercriminals have more opportunities than ever to strike. And it’s not just individuals at risk—businesses now depend on social media to engage with their audiences, making them prime targets for digital deception.
Conclusion
With all that juicy personal information just floating around the internet like a buffet for cybercriminals, it’s no shocker that hackers are zeroing in on social media accounts. I mean, why wouldn’t they? It’s basically an all-you-can-steal identity theft special.
And it’s not just your Instagram and Twitter (sorry, x) at risk—hackers are coming for websites too. So, unless you love being the victim of a phishing scam, it’s probably a good idea to step up your security game.
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