Basically, hardly any accounts are hacked; you are more likely to fall victim to another trap. Nevertheless, the blame is placed on “hackers”. Likewise, the term “hacker” is not used correctly.

First the good news: No, none of you have been “hacked”. Most Facebook users are simply far too unimportant for a “hack” (as long as it is one and not a crack).

The bad news: There is still something wrong with your account, and it's your own fault. No hackers. You have to admit that you have fallen into a trap and that unknown third parties now have access to the account in some way.

It's almost always carelessness online that leaves you vulnerable in some way ( Error 40 ). So that you know what really most likely happened to you, we provide the relevant safety tips here.

What hit me?

Phishing:

“Yeah, yeah, not me!”, many people will think to themselves. Sure, everyone on the internet is so good that they can always recognize phishing. That's why it must have been evil hackers who are to blame. Because phishing always consists of bad German and warped Microsoft Paint graphics, you don't fall for it. NONSENSE! The opposite is the case!

The recreated websites, such as a Facebook login, are no different from a real login. Even the URLs, i.e. the addresses, are very cleverly modeled on the original. There are more characters in Unicode than just the Latin letters we constantly use. Phishing addresses often use similar-looking letters ( like here ). Please pay close attention to where you log in with Facebook. To do this, take a close look at the address to see whether it is actually from Facebook and not a phishing site.

This is often possible, especially with many apps/sites/competitions that basically have nothing to do with Facebook.
Our advice at this point: Be sure to use 2-factor login on Facebook!

Malicious Facebook applications: 

Again, not hackers, but Facebook applications, or simply called apps by Facebook within the platform, are small additional applications that you can add as a function within your own account. Due to the name, please do not confuse it with the Facebook app itself!

There are many Facebook applications that often receive far too many permissions. Posting in the name of your profile is particularly problematic here. E.g. name tests, horoscope stories etc.

You can easily check which apps and pages you have given permissions, the instructions are here .

Likejacking

Likes and comments can also be smuggled in through the back door. In this case, too, this has nothing to do with hackers, but rather a combination of phishing and clickbait. For example, you will receive a link with a sensational title “x and y filmed having sex!” outside/within Facebook.

You click on the link and while you are still logged into an active session on Facebook, something is now posted in your name. The reason: There is a Like button above the alleged video, invisible to you. If you now click on the “play” symbol of the video, you will simultaneously post it on Facebook, even though you are not on a Facebook page at all. We have a typical example case here (click) .

Copied Facebook profiles

This is not the work of hackers, even though it may seem like it. The perpetrator copies your Facebook profile and writes to your friends that “you” have a new profile. You will then be asked for your friends' cell phone number, and a little later your friends will receive a code on their cell phone that they should pass on.

This triggers a cell phone payment and your friends will have the amount charged to their cell phone bill. In turn, it leaves you with damage to your reputation because your friends now believe you have cheated on them.

Protection against this trap is quite simple: do not make your friends list, personal information or the content you post public. Your friends list in particular is really nobody's business.

The following also applies: If you receive such requests, take a close look at the profile and check whether it has existed for a long time.
To do this, simply scroll down in the timeline. If in doubt, ask the person via another communication channel, because it doesn't make sense via Facebook Messenger.

About hackers

Hacker. You always think of young men sitting in a dark room wearing a hoodie in front of a homemade computer and watching all sorts of digital channels (hence our cover photo for this article, which plays with exactly this image).

But the image of the hacker is fundamentally wrong. According to his own description, in the classic sense of computer security, a hacker does not randomly break into user accounts in order to misuse them. Rather the opposite. The Chaos Computer Club has also published hacker ethics . There you can also read the following point:

Use public data, protect private data. […] In order to combine the protection of the privacy of the individual with the promotion of freedom of information for information that concerns the public, the last point so far was finally added.

In order to create a dividing line between “malicious intrusion” into computer systems or accounts, the term “cracker” was created, but it receives little attention in the media and politics. The term hacker continues to frame negatively.

Article image hacker: Shutterstock / By Sergey Nivens


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )