Facebook Security In The News Again

There are a billion logins to Facebook in the course of a day, the shocking fact is that 600,000 of those are by imposters attempting to gain access a user's personal information, photos and posts.  This was revealed in a post on a Facebook blog post.

This is a startling number and demonstrates that users of the site should create secure passwords.   Insecure passwords are those that can be easily guessed by someone you know like the name of a pet, spouse/significant other, friends, street name, etc. and don't think that adding a number to the end will help because that is another option a hacker will try.  There are also common mistakes using the most common passwords.  Here's a list of the top ten worst internet passwords:

1. 123456
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. Password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. rockyou
8. 1234567
9. 12345678
10. abc123

When a account is compromised the hacker is free to post messages, add images and access any personal information stored on the site.  One of the most common reasons for hacking accounts is to use the platform to spread spam and offers with the intention of financial gain.  This can also be used as a form of cyber bullying when the account is accessed by an acquaintance with the intention of posting malicious content.  

It is becoming easier to get login details using phishing and social engineering techniques (see my earlier articles).  It is known that of the 600,000 attempts not all are successful, one method used is blocking based on location.  Although the blog post was in erference to Facebook, the same message applies to Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks.  The moral of the story is to make an educated decision when you create your password, don't use the same password as other sites and if you are guilty of using a weak password please change it as soon as possible.