2020 saw an increase in reports of online fraud and crime, ranging from social media hacking to bank fraud, a trend which shows no sign of slowing down in 2021. Now, more than ever, it’s essential to secure your personal information and online accounts.
Even something as seemingly insignificant as losing access to your Facebook account, which may have no direct financial implications, is not only an inconvenience but could have serious consequences. Whether you operate your business through it or just use it to stay in touch with friends and family, it’s a problem you shouldn’t ever need to face if you take the relevant precautions to protect yourself.
Social media platforms have long been championing the use of Two Factor Authentication (sometimes known as Two Step Authentication) as the most effective method of securing your accounts. A basic ‘one step’ sign-in process relies solely on the user entering the correct username and password. If someone has acquired your details, for example in a data leak, there’s very little to prevent that person from accessing any of your accounts using these same details. Whilst it’s important to stress the need to use different passwords on different sites (and to use password vaults such as Keychain, LastPass, Dashlane etc), the reality is that most people have two or three versions of the same password used across all their accounts, which is the number one method used by hackers.
This is where Two Factor Authentication, or ‘2FA’, comes in to play. It requires two separate authentication factors to verify a user before they log in. Once you enter the correct username and password, a second step is required, often via a different device. This could be a verification code sent to the mobile phone of the account holder or using an app like Google Authenticator to confirm it’s you logging in to the account. If your data is compromised in a leak elsewhere, the login credentials are useless to a hacker if they don’t also have your phone in their hand, making it virtually impossible for them to gain access to your account.
Do you manage a Facebook page?
Facebook has been encouraging users to implement 2FA for a few years, though very soon it will be compulsory for anyone who manages a page with any level of access. Facebook has recently launched its new page design and with it comes an increased focus on security. As users sometimes have wide range of access to pages and their contents, Facebook will be limiting access for users who have not yet enabled 2FA on their profile.
Time to get ahead!
Don’t wait for Facebook to make this change. Get ahead and secure your account today. The last thing you want is to lose access to the pages you manage because you haven’t enabled 2FA. Take the following steps today:
- If you’re a page owner, ensure you have a ‘business manager’ on Facebook to manage it. As well as being a more secure way of managing a page, it also opens up a range of additional features you may not be accessing without it.
- Ensure each person in the business manager has the correct level of access to each Facebook page
- Ensure each user enables 2FA on their personal account (Facebook will show business admins which users do not yet have it enabled)
