My Facebook was Hacked Now What?
Well..the worst possible thing happened to me as a creator…MY ACCOUNT WAS HACKED. Not only was it hacked but they posted obscene images, tried to take money from my PayPal and since my accounts were linked to my Facebook that was hacked my Instagram is gone too.
So much hard work and dedication into growing that page and cultivating those relationships and no way for me to reach back out to them except for the start over and try to find all my people again! Its been a week and we’re slowly but surely growing again and trying to push out the content that I have.
Looking at this experience I think its a blessing in disguise…don’t get me wrong I am DEVASTATED…I’ve had both those accounts since I was basically in high school and most of my life was just on there, so the little reminders and ON THIS DAY notifications were such sweet reminders of how much I’ve grown and accomplished. How I’m looking at it now is, I’m newly married, I live a new life, and I have so much to celebrate and share, I don’t need the reminders of my past to continue to move forward. I also have an opportunity to reach a whole new audience of people I wouldn’t have, I’m already doing things differently than I did with my old accounts and it feels good to have a fresh start.
The hardest part is I have upcoming campaigns and I had to reach out and let them know what happened, but because of the relationship we built and the brands being real people, they were completely understanding and are still on board with me to work with them. Another great aspect of this restart is that I get to go into these new accounts already established as a content creator/blogger/influencer and I don’t have to do the mental work of convincing myself that I am those things. Its still going to be a lot of work and I’m here for it, so here’s to a fresh start and putting in the work!
My biggest tips for protecting your accounts (this is from personal experience and talking with other creators and tech friends)
Change your passwords often, AND MAKE THEM STRONG try to use something ambiguous but easy for you to remember (try not to use the usual name and birthday passwords) My uncle in tech says an easy to remember phrase like IcedCoffee4Life are way better and harder to guess, aim for 12 characters with symbols, numbers and a mix of lower and uppercase letters
Don’t use the same password everywhere I know I know, its hard to remember all of our passwords but using different ones for different sites is the best way to protect yourself, with so many data leaks happening your information is out there and will be easier to get into ALL of your accounts
Use multi-factor authentication Set up those extra security measures so you have a back up way to get into your
accounts and it’s more secure
Learn to recognize Phising emails and suspicious DMs in this digital age someone is always trying to get you to give up your info or get you to log into your accounts using fake sites. They’re getting really good but learn to recognize when its a scam email, look at the from email address, look at the the logos, you get pretty good at it.
Back up your information! Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, yes my Instagram and Facebook are gone and I have to restart but I still have all of my content and can repost to my new channels.
Have a website This is more of a bonus, but because I have my own website, everything I post here is MINE so theres no worrying if Instagram decides to just not be a thing anymore , You still have your very own platform that’s yours to control.
Let me know in the comments below if you have anything you’d add to protect your account
