Facebook Accounts

[Marshal Murat]

I've heard of a couple of my friends having their facebook accounts 'hacked' and changed. Recently one of my friend's accounts was turned into a spam dispenser, telling me all about free ringtones.

How does this happen? Is it where I enter a website and it automatically takes over my account or what? What can I do to prevent it?

[Ramses II CP]

I don't have any social networking site accounts, but 90% of the time when someone gets 'hacked' they weren't careful with their password and it got passed around or was easily guessed. I'm sure there are other vulnerabilities, especially if Facebook lets you add widgets from questionable 3rd parties to your page.

Basic security and data preservation techniques apply. Backup everything you actually care about, use a good password, and don't use content whose provenence is uncertain.

[The Wandering Scholar]

I don't have any social networking site accounts, but 90% of the time when someone gets 'hacked' they weren't careful with their password and it got passed around or was easily guessed. I'm sure there are other vulnerabilities, especially if Facebook lets you add widgets from questionable 3rd parties to your page.

Basic security and data preservation techniques apply. Backup everything you actually care about, use a good password, and don't use content whose provenence is uncertain.