Prevent Your Online Accounts from Getting Hacked | #Virus Sites

#IbaNaAngMayAlam.  With the 21st century education, access to the internet is a great ally. As teachers, we share files, we download files and we can now communicate online. It’s a big help for us teachers in a lot of ways especially we have devices such as smartphones and computers. Despite of tons of paper works  to accomplish, using the internet makes a lot of difference. We can recall at the start of the K to 12 curriculum, a lot of us just started or was just introduced to the use of computers and the internet. Imagine the time when there are still no computers or smartphones? That is why we salute our senior teachers! Despite the absence of technology at their time, they have produced great students who are now professionals including us. And now, we became #TechieGuro.

Because of this, we are all exposed online. We have our online  presence through our social media accounts, our email accounts etc. But how do we really know how to protect our online accounts? Are we all aware on the widespread internet viruses? Are we all protected?

For example:

Did you know that your account on Facebook could get banned if they detect that your online account has been spreading spams with possible viruses? Did you know that your account could be sending malicious content from virus sites to your Facebook friends, or the public without you knowing it?  Or, did you know that your credentials such as personal information, financial information and other relevant information about you could be abused by hackers and use them on their advantage and again, without you knowing? And all of this could happen on Facebook. That’s why you need to secure your Facebook account from viruses from virus sites.

We know Facebook has all the technology to prevent this from happening but hackers – with their clever and creative minds, they tend to exhaust all the possible ways to infiltrate a complicated system like Facebook and cause problems and paranoia. Prevent your online accounts from getting hacked

We all value our reputation as teachers and we should prevent such instances from happening to us. Here are some basic ways to secure your Facebook account from viruses and hackers.

For example, in our Facebook Group – DepEd Teachers Club, certain people’s account keeps on sending or posting comments on posts that seem malicious – probably their account is compromised. Some other malicious contents get filtered as pending post for admin approval. That- we can control and prevent from spreading. Much as we welcome all Teachers in our group, this becomes a nuisance to some. Please, if these are done intentionally, please delete them yourself before we decide to review your group activities. Lest, we will be forced to exclude you from our group.

We care for you and for your own accounts’ sake and if this was done unintentionally due to viruses from clicking spam links, please do the following:

 

Immediate Action Required to Check if your account has been compromised:

 

If your account is compromised, these are easy ways to secure your account according to Facebook:

1. Secure your password to prevent your online accounts from getting hacked
   • Never, ever share your password with anyone else. Make sure you’re the only one who knows it. When choosing your password, avoid using words that are easy to guess such as your name, birth date, your pet’s name or easy to guess common words. It should be unique and difficult to guess.
   • Keep in mind that Facebook will never ask you for your password in an email, via messenger or any form of communication.
   • To change your password if you’re already logged in:
     • Click account settings in the top right corner of any Facebook page and select Settings.
     • Click Security and Login.
     • Click Edit next to Change Password.
     • Enter your current password and new password.
     • Click Save Changes.
2. Make sure your email account is secure. If you use google email account, follow these steps.
   • Do a Google Security Checkup by clicking HERE.
     • Just follow the security steps that Google requires.
     • These steps will help you block someone from using your account, alert you if there’s suspicious activity on your account and recover your account if you’re ever locked out
     • These are highly recommended to protect your Google account.
3. Always Log out of Facebook when you use a device that you share with other people (office computers, public computers, shared phones).
   • If you forget to log-out, Facebook has a security feature where you can log out remotely.
     • To do this:
       • Manage where you are currently logged into Facebook in Security and Login Settings HERE.
         • Here you have the control to Log-out your account to the devices where it maliciously seems your account is logged in.
         • Please note that the “Where You’re Logged In” section identifies the location, time, date and devices where you are currently logged in.
       • Log out your Facebook account using another computer or  phone.
         • Go to Facebook Security and Login Settings HERE.
         • Navigate to the section “Where You’re Logged In”and click See More to see all of the sessions where you’re logged in.
         • Find the session you want to end. Click and then click Log Out.
         • By clicking “Log Out”, you will automatically log your account out of Facebook on that selected device.
         • You can also use Facebook’s Extra Security Features by clicking HERE
4. Don’t accept friend requests from people you don’t know. Scammers may create fake accounts to befriend people that allow them to spam your timeline, tag you in posts and send you malicious messages. (from Facebook)
5. Make sure you have and Anti-virus installed on your computer and ALWAYS scan your computer.
   • All of us have valuable files that took us a lot of time to acquire and collect. It would be a nuisance to always download them every time.
   • Scanning your computer could always help you protect your files from malicious software that infects your computer and destroys your files.
     • If your computer is performing very slow, despite just doing MS Word, MS Excel or browsing online, there’s a sure chance that your computer is infected with virus.
   • There are a lot of FREE reliable Anti-virus online. We have tried Bitdefender, McAfee, Kaspersky, but we recommend you try Avast Free Anti-Virus HERE
6. ALWAYS SCAN your USB Devices.
   • We always use USB devices in transferring files from other computers. If you usually plug in your USB on other computers, when you plug it again to your computer, ALWAYS SCAN your USB before opening it to clear it from viruses to protect your computer.

 

 

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. ” – Sun Tzu, Chapter III, The Art of War

 

Accessing virus sites with a lot of POP-UPS that doesn’t lead you to your desired web page  even how hard you try?

Think again.

You could be an easy target for hackers and an easy target for the propagation of online viruses.