Facebook Security

Facebook is a global phenomenon that is here to stay (for at least the foreseeable future!), we all know that, but with 100s of millions of users publishing personal details and regular attacks by people trying to get hold of these details, how do you stay safe? Many people don't realise, or know how to use the tools that Facebook provides to help keep your time on their site trouble free. I will show you how best to set up your Facebook account, and how to identify suspicious activity, and highlight things that may still happen, totally outside your control. As Facebook is constanty evolving the appearance of buttons and order of items in menus may change, however the basic principles should remain the same.

Facebook Settings

The first thing to do when securing your Facebook account is to go to the downward arrow button at the top right hand side of your page when you have logged in.

In the menu that appears, click on Account Settings:

We are going to alter Security first, to ensure we use a secure connection to Facebook and also setup login notifications which will send you an email whenever a new computer, phone etc logs in to your Facebook account. Using a secure connection is the same as if you were buying from a website, so all the data is encrypted and prevents hackers from intercepting the data that is transferring as you browse Facebook. To enable this, in the left menu click Security:

Then in the right menu, there will be an option for "Secure Browsing" and will tell you if secure browsing is enable or disabled: 

If it is disabled, click anywhere in the row (where the mouse pointer turns to a hand) to open up the option of enabling it. You will see a check box that says "Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) when possible" tick that and click Save Changes. You will be taken back to Facebook on a secure connection, and each time you login, you will browse over a secure connection.

Login notifications will allow you to set a unique name for your PC, mobile, tablet etc when you login to Facebook from a new device e.g. you might want to call a login from your laptop "HP Laptop" and a login from your phone "iPhone". 3rd party applications (apps) such as Friendly on the Apple iPad will however periodically automatically log you out of Facebook for security, and each time you re login you will have to rename your device. Personally each time I rename it "iPad Friendly" and as soon as you name a device, Facebook will send you an email showing that someone has logged in to your account from such a device. Therefore if you receive an email to say that someone has logged into your account and you don't recognise the device, then you can follow the instructions in the email to re-secure your account. Each app you use to login may require a new device name to be set. Enabling this option is very similar to enabling secure browsing. Assuming we are still on the Security screen within Account settings, if the option in the right hand menu says that login notifications are disabled, click on it:

When enabling login notifications you can choose to receive an email, text message or both. Tick whichever box(es) suit you best and click Save Changes. This will mean that Facebook will notify you via the selected method(s) when someone logs in from a different device. You will need to register your mobile number with Facebook to use the text message facility. In the third row are Login Approvals. Taking the notifications one step further, this allows you to require a code sent via text message for you to input to authorise any new connections. You do need to wait a week for it to fully take effect, as per the message that appears when you choose to enable it:

This may well replace the notifications in future. You will again however have to register your mobile phone with Facebook. Personally I would say that Notifications or Approvals are needed, but not both. If you don't wish to register your mobile with Facebook then notifications are your only option, however the increased security of Approvals may be suited to those who are particularly concerned about their account security.

You can further increase your security by only allowing friends to see your information and account. This is done from the Privacy Settings page. In recent weeks, Facebook have simplified this page, but there is still too much to go through in this one post. The main 2 areas to be aware of are your default privacy settings. This is particularly useful if you are using mobile apps. More often than not you will want to keep it to "Friends"

Another section to look at is the "How You Connect" section. Editing this will give you options as to who can view what information on your profile, post on your wall etc. I would strongly suggest editing these settings to your personal preference. When you click on "Edit Settings" you will be presented with a popup similar to the following. Each item should be fairly self explanatory.

Following these simple steps you will have made your Facebook account more secure. There are other things to look out for, which I have categorised under Suspicious Activity below.

Suspicious Activity

Facebook is always under attack in various ways, it is always going to happen with a vast site with personal data on it. Once you have secured your own account, there are other things to look out for, and more importantly NOT TO CLICK! 

You may well have seen a post "from a friend" in your News Feed with some kind of shocking or intriguing line to encourage you to look, usually including a photo or video. These have typically involved beached whales, tag lines such as "what this shocking school girl did" etc. You should never click on these. They tend to allow themselves to repost if they do and sometimes take you to innocent adverts, but can also be used by other, more malicious sites to access your personal information. Facebook do seem rather hot on removing these now but at some point one may well appear in your news feed. Just to re-iterate my point with regard to these malicious links - DO NOT CLICK THEM!

Disclaimer

This post is intended as a personal guide, I cannot be held responsible for actions taken by Facebook or third parties in regard to privacy, security or usage of the site, nor any data lost or stolen whilst using Facebook, whether following this guide or not. However it should help you stay safer on Facebook by using the settings they provide in the correct way.