In this digital era, nothing is completely protected. The convenience that advanced software and tools offer us in our day-to-day lives come with an increased security risk. The makers of digital platforms and tools have deployed experts working round the clock to find loops in their systems to prevent security breaches.
We all know how badly hacking can impact our business or personal life. The world has witnessed numerous cyber threats like social media account hacking, email account hacking and identity hacking. Even giant organizations have been victims of such incursions. Digital platforms such as Yahoo, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, and Dubsmash have encountered data breaching attempts in recent years.
There are over 60 million active business pages on Facebook. It has been estimated that aprox 160,000 Facebook accounts are hacked every day. Imagine, if mischievous elements hijack your Facebook business page, and you lose control over your page. Sounds scary? Well, Facebook has been the victim of a number of security breaches in recent years, all of which have had a detrimental impact on its users. These breaches include some infamous Facebook hacking incidents.
MIT Hack Facebook in 2005, Cambridge Analytics in 2014, and, how can we miss out on “The April 2021 Facebook Breach” which exposed personal information of about half a billion Facebook users.
Although Facebook’s Business Manager is usually rather secure, malevolent users have found ways to take advantage of it and your money, usually to market their items and hack other accounts. Recently, Niek Mass, who lost 3,000 euros from his business ad account, spoke about his experience in his post
During our primary research about how people are hacking FB business pages, we came across this Reddit thread wherein an individual narrated his story about how his Facebook business manager got hacked even though it was backed by two-factor authentication.
One of our friends experienced a similar Facebook business page hacking incident last year, so, we’re discussing the episode to save all of you from similar tragedies
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Facebook page was hijacked
He was on the way to a business meeting when he got a message from a Facebook business page. He overlooked the text and clicked on the link that redirected him to a page asking for account authentication’s username and password. He filled in the details quickly and forgot about it as he was almost late for his meeting. He didn’t check the emails sent by Facebook about the changes in his FB account and business page during the next few hours. It cost him dearly because hackers had hijacked his FB profile by changing his name, birthday, email and password. They also removed his administrator access to the page.
They turned it into a spamming page
Many known followers of his Facebook business page reported that several contentious links had been posted through his Facebook business page. These links included spurious content, and when the followers complained about the same, hackers immediately banned those followers from the Facebook business page. He asked his known followers to report the Facebook business page to Facebook.
Filed a complaint with Facebook support
He raised this issue with the Facebook support page. However, his hacking was more because of carelessness, as Facebook had sent emails notifying him about suspicious activities on his account. Facebook asked for the linked email account and phone number, but things were out of their control by this stage. After visiting different Facebook support pages, ee got nothing relevant and helpful enabling hime to recover his FB business page.
Facebook took down the business page
When he tried to log back in to his Facebook page, he reached a page articulating different conditions, and he clicked on ‘If I lost control over my business page’. It opened a form where he could report the hijacking of his FB business page. He had followed the procedure and received a generic text including a ticket number (complaint number). Facebook had taken down the page after three days of reporting the hijack.
Finally, he got his business page back
He received a text from Facebook stating, “Your administrative rights have been restored.” It took almost one month to get this response. Then, he requested that the business page URL be changed as it was altered by the hijackers, and got the previous one back within 24 hours. Also, he had made numerous security changes to avoid such an event in the future.
Recovered the decreased traffic effectively
A significant part of his business came from Facebook and other social media platforms, but the traffic rate went down considerably during the one month of the breakdown. He was fortunate that the damage done by the hackers was minor. All his content such as videos, images and posts were as he had left them. He removed all the spamming links and content posted by the hackers, made his followers aware of this hack through different posts and thankfully, the situation was resolved. Within a few days, the page was back to receiving the desired traffic, and had regained the trust of its followers.
Tips to avoid facebook business page hijack
After having such a horrible experience, he decided to make his business page on Facebook hacking proof and dug through the web to find ways to do the same. These are mentioned below
Facebook recommends following three steps to protect a business page from a security breach.
1-Setup log-in notifications
Facebook allows its users to enable log-in notifications to allow the receipt of notifications in the event that anyone attempts to access your business account with your username and password. Whenever there is an attempt to log in to your account, you will get a notification on your cell phone. If you find it is an unauthorised attempt to log in, you must change your password immediately. Here are the steps to set up the login notifications
- Visit Facebook Home Page
- Go to ‘Account Settings’ and select ‘Security.’
- Tap the check box to activate login notifications
- Select ‘Save Changes’
2- Check your active sessions frequently
It is vital to check your active sessions to ensure the optimum security of your Facebook account and business page. Any suspicious location or device in your active sessions indicates that your account is at potential risk. It’s time to end your activity and change your password instantly. Here is how you can do it
- Visit Facebook Home Page
- Go to ‘Account Settings’
- Select ‘Security’ and then ‘Active Sessions’
- Now end all active sessions
3- Activate secure browsing
Another way to secure your Facebook account is opting for secure browsing. Thus, Facebook will suggest only authentic and genuine pages and profiles to keep your account away from mischievous elements. Here is how you can activate secure browsing
- Visit Facebook Home Page
- Go to ‘Account Settings’
- Select ‘Security’ and then ‘Secure Browsing.’
Self-awareness is the key
After spending many years in social media marketing and managing Facebook for business pages, experts have realized that self-awareness is the most crucial thing one should adopt to keep their Facebook for business account and business page protected. While operating a Facebook for business page, keep only two to three trustworthy people in the administration. Try to log in to Facebook for business pages only through specific devices that you can identify if login is attempted via an unknown device. Never share your Facebook for business account password with anyone, and whenever you observe a suspicious activity allied with your Facebook for business account or business page, change your password without delay.
Protecting Facebook business pages
You can also ensure the optimum protection of your Facebook business page by following all the security measures recommended by Facebook. Keep changing your password frequently and pay complete attention to notifications or messages sent by Facebook. Social media platforms are not unbreachable as there are numerous loopholes in the systems. Still, you can certainly avoid events like the one experienced by my friend, only if you follow the security measures suggested by Facebook.
