Guide to facebook security

Own Your Space

A Guide to Facebook Security
For Young Adults, Parents, and Educators
Linda McCarthy, Keith Watson, and Denise Weldon-Siviy

This online guide explains how you can:
• • • • • Protect your Facebook account Avoid the scammers Use advanced security settings Recover a hacked Facebook account Stop imposters

If

there was any doubt on the incredible power of socialnetworking, consider the more than one billion pieces of content shared each day with over half a billion users. Facebook connects over 500 million people in over 210 countries—indeed, its global population exceeds the size of most European countries, and counts among its members citizens from every single continent in the world. People on Facebook have great power—they can Friend, Chat, share StatusUpdates, post Comments, share Links, tag Photos, post Videos, join Groups, create Pages, design Polls, and play together using Applications. They use Facebook to promote causes, interests, and themselves! Facebook allows the world to be more open and connected by giving its users the tools to interact and share in any conceivable way. And, to paraphrase the superhero, with great power comes greatresponsibility. Just as a city paints sidewalks, and pedestrians look both ways before crossing the street, security on Facebook is a responsibility shared between Facebook and the people who use its platform. This guide is all about empowering you to Own Your Space—to understand what Facebook is doing to make the site safe and secure and to take the actions that are needed in this new digitalworld to protect yourself and your account. While the focus of this guide is on Facebook, the lessons here apply to every site you visit online. Throughout the guide, we will highlight the unique tools that Facebook provides so that you can harness your power by protecting your account, using advanced security settings, recovering a hacked Facebook account, and stopping imposters. Beyond this, wewant you to adopt the mantra: Stop. Think. Connect. Facebook has a ton to offer people, and with a little bit of common sense you can stay safe and secure. We hope you find this guide useful. Please join the conversation by visiting the Facebook Security Page at www.facebook.com/security.

Own Your Space: A Guide to Facebook Security 2

Protecting Your Facebook Account

Y

ou are the firstline of defense in protecting your account. You can take control of your protection by using strong passwords, taking advantage of the many advanced security settings that provide authentication as well as secure communications, and making sure you log out when you are done.

Using good passwords
Using a good password is something that you should do every place you visit on the Internet, notjust Facebook. Creating a good password is fairly simple. You want it to be complex enough that it can’t be guessed, yet meaningful enough that you can actually remember it.

Have a great password?
•  Don’t use it for ALL your accounts. •  Don’t share it with friends. •  Change it regularly. •  Consider storing it in a password tool. A good password has at least eight characters, one or morenumbers, and at least one special character. Use non-words but associate them with a word. Imagine your pet’s name is Buddy, you live on State Street, you’re 15, and you like to stargaze at night. A good password for you would be budstat15*. Or go for something humorous you can remember. One woman set her work password to remind her of why she went to work, 4da$cash. Can’t remember that many details?Use a password tool to remember for you. Many browsers now include password vaults. If yours doesn’t, consider a free tool like KeePass Password Safe (http://keepass.info/). And just in case you still forget, be sure to add a security question and your mobile phone number in the ACCOUNT SETTINGS of your Facebook account.

Logging out of Facebook
Logging out of Facebook when you’re not using...