Now one might ask me, why I say so? It’s simple, In general our ISP’s (Internet Service Provider) provide us with a dynamic IP, ie, the IP address gets generated every time our Router/Dongle gets connected to their sever during authentication. (Which in generally see as ‘connecting’ information on the user interface that is available eg: see snapshot added for reference)
So if the Router/Dongle stay’s connected for a very long period the IP address tends to stale up and even if you restart your router/dongle it shows at exchange level that your system is still connected. This results in 2 major issues:
a) Gives way to a hacker the perfect gateway to play and toy with your computer and delicate personal information via the social networking websites (which most have a habit of keeping it connected all the time either via a computer or a mobile phone).
b) It might result in connection outage for several hours.
Since out here the social networking websites (especially Facebook) are easy picking’s. I would like to share a few things that for a hacker will be a bit hard to crack into your profile.
Go to ‘Account’ -> ‘Account Settings’ you will see the following page under ‘General‘ category.
Next Click on ‘Security’ option which is present just below the ‘General’ option on the left hand side of the menu view as shown in the screenshot above. Once done you will see the following page as shown.
Once here all the options that are available in the middle part of the screen have to changed to desired options. The following are the one that I personally will recommend:
1)Security Question: Please set it up based on the drop down and make a note both of the question and answer that you provide, Facebook can ask this question if the server detects an incorrect login tried multiple times on your account for authenticity.
2)Secure Browsing: Mandatorily ‘Enable’ it, this makes your browser connect to Facebook over a https:// login. So this secure SSL connection gives you an extra layer of protection over this vast World Wide Web!!!
3)Login Notifications: This option should also be kept ‘Enabled’ as well as this provides a detailed information to the registered email address (that one used to open the Facebook) if any access is done to your account from a different computer/mobile other than the ones that you in general use. Basically Facebook recognizes the MAC address of your device to give this information which in general is accurate a 100%.
4)Recognized Devices: This feature gets activated once the ‘Login Notification’ is enabled, this keeps a log of the usually used computer/mobile, hence giving one an easy access to verify any unknown activity.
5)Active Sessions: This part is what I am particularly proud of, it shows one all the active sessions that are present at real time. So say you are logged in from your IPad and Laptop to the same account at one time both the access information will be shown, best part if you want you can terminate any one the sessions from here. Thus if you find apart from your ISP’s server location there is any other access being done, close/terminate the session asap!!! As it might actually save you from a hacked entry.
Apart from these, my recommendation to all especially Facebook account holders, apart from using the basic features that keeps you updated, try not to use any additional applications such as Farmville, Cityville etc from your profile as these compromises your security but not being active over https:// (or SSL) connectivity. Special note for mobile user’s: Only use Facebook applications provided by your mobile phone manufacturer or Sanptu or Facebook itself (from it’s login page) as these have been tested to be secure.
Though I do not want to give anyone a scare, but for me I believe prevention is better than cure..happy browsing my fellow Facebook(ians).
