After Facebook breach, what can you do to protect yourself?

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Sunday, September 30, 2018
After Facebook breach, what can you do to protect yourself?
There are a number of simple steps you can take now to safeguard your digital life.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- On Friday Facebook announced that a security flaw with its "View As" feature led 50 million accounts, and as many as 90 million users, to be compromised.

Cybersecurity expert Adam Levin spoke with ABC7 News' Michael Finney about what you can do to protect yourself.

RELATED: What we know about Facebook's massive security breach so far

The first step is to re-login in to Facebook, Levin said, and to make sure you re-login to any app you login into using your Facebook credentials.

That's because Facebook has re-set the "access tokens" that people use to login, but the new tokens won't take effect if you don't re-login.

RELATED: Facebook says 50 million user accounts affected by security breach

Levin said people need to be mindful of their "cyber hygiene" and take the following steps:

  • Create long and strong passwords for all your digital accounts.
  • Use two-factor authentication with Facebook and other sites.
  • Try to limit the information you provide on social networking sites, because this information can be used against you (to come up with the answers to your security questions on other sites, for example).
  • Don't answer security questions used for your logins honestly - "lie like a superhero" to make it harder for possible attackers to guess the answers to these questions.
  • Monitor all your sites, because the sooner you know if there's an issue or you've been hacked, the better.
  • Manage the damage by getting insurance or taking other precautions to protect yourself.

Click here for a look at more stories by Michael Finney and 7 On Your Side.

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