Your Facebook or Instagram account can be your link to friends, a profile for your work or a key to other services, so losing access can be very worrying.
Millions of Facebook and Instagram users issued five new rules to follow
What to do if you can’t get into your Facebook or Instagram account has been revealed. Your Facebook or Instagram account can be your link to friends, a profile for your work or a key to other services, so losing access can be very worrying.
If your Facebook or Instagram account gets lost, hacked or stolen, you’re urged to do five things: change your passport, turn on two-stop verification, turn on “unrecognised login”, remove any “suspicious friends” and turn on “advanced protection”.
Your password should be hard to guess. It should not contain personal information like your birthday or phone number. A strong password protects your Google Account. Add recovery info in case you get locked out.
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A strong password helps you keep your personal info safe, protect your emails, files, and other content and prevent someone else from getting in to your account. Your password can be any combination of letters, numbers, and symbols (ASCII-standard characters only). Accents and accented characters aren’t supported.
You can’t use a password that is particularly weak, you’ve used before on your account, or starts or ends with a blank space. A strong password can be memorable to you but nearly impossible for someone else to guess. Learn what makes a good password, then follow these tips to create your own.
Long passwords are stronger, so make your password at least 12 characters long. These tips can help you create longer passwords that are easier to remember. Try to use a lyric from a song or poem, a meaningful quote from a movie or speech, or a passage from a book.
You can use a series of words that are meaningful to you or an abbreviation. Avoid choosing passwords that could be guessed by people who know you OR by people looking at easily accessible info (like your social media profile).
The NSCS says: “Avoid the most common passwords that criminals can easily guess (like ‘password’). You should also avoid creating passwords from significant dates (like your birthday, or a loved one’s), or from your favourite sports team, or by using family and pet names.
“Most of these details can be found within your social media profile. If you’re thinking of changing certain characters in your password (so swapping the letter ‘o’ with a zero, for example), you should know that cyber criminals know these tricks as well.
“So your password won’t be significantly stronger, but it will be harder for you to remember.”