5 ways to protect your Meta Suite
Unless you’ve been off social media for the past few months, you’ve probably come across a story, reel, or post about someone having their account duplicated or hacked. Especially the Meta Suite (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), where it’s particularly common (and incredibly hard to fix once it’s happened.)
While you see it a lot, many people think it won’t happen to them until it does. Many individuals and business creators are not protecting their accounts, and it’s simply a matter of time before they’re targeted.
Since it breaks my heart when I see someone I know falling victim to another scammer or hacker, I’m here today to help you protect your social media accounts, especially your Meta Business Suite!
Here are 5 ways you can protect yourself
Have a secure password
If your password is 123456, 1234, ABCD, your name/last name, your birthday, your kid's name or something that many people would know or could easily figure out, then it’s time to change that password asap!
Use auto generator passwords to make it as hard as possible for someone to crack the code! Also, make sure you are using different passwords for all platforms and for different things that you use passwords for. If you use the same password for everything and someone cracks your password, then you are opening yourself up to a bigger problem!
Stop taking public surveys
It’s time to stop sharing and answering all those crazy surveys and questionnaires that ask you questions such as:
Where did you meet your husband?
What’s your mother’s maiden name?
What’s your favourite colour?
What’s your favourite number?
You get it; these are all questions that could lead someone to your passwords! Ask yourself: ‘do any of these questions relate to your passwords?’ If so, stop publicly answering these questionnaires and surveys and publishing your answers for anyone to be able to see them online.
Don’t open unfamiliar links
If you receive a weird message asking you to click an included link—whether it’s from a friend, family member or someone that you haven’t spoken with in a while—whatever you do, DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK!
99% of the time, this is spam, and a hacker is able to take over your accounts immediately after clicking. If you receive a message that says, “Is this you?”, “I found a video about you!” or something along those lines; again, do not click or answer.
If it’s a friend, then send them a text message, email or phone call to see if they have actually sent you a message. If it looks suspicious, don’t open it.
Add another admin to your business pages
I know that many entrepreneurs are a 1-person-show, so how can you have a second person as admin on your business page?
Add your partner, parent, trusted long-time friend, or another trusted business owner. This gives you backup access if your personal page is hacked. I have seen many business owners who have been hacked on their personal accounts, which have resulted in losing access to their business page and having to start all over.
If you have a secondary admin on the page, the chances of both being hacked at the same time are slim, which means when one person gets hacked and loses access, the other can still keep track of the business page and can re-add the owner when they re-claim their account or if they need to create a new one.
Set up a 2-factor authentication
You may have heard this on many occasions, but have you actually set it up? If not, DO IT NOW!
This will let you know if someone is trying to get into your accounts and give you time to change your passwords, and hopefully save your account before too much damage is done!
Do a quick audit
While social media and Meta are free for all individuals and businesses, you are still risking your personal privacy by having an account and a business page. Make sure to bookmark this post to do a quick audit regularly to keep your accounts secure.
You can find out more about keeping your accounts secure by checking out this article from Facebook as well.
Have questions about Meta or privacy in general? Book a call!