Saturday, May 4, 2013

Secure Facebook account using Trusted Contacts

Secure Facebook
Hello Friends, All of you must be using Facebook, so do I. 
Recently, Facebook announced a new feature called "Trusted Contacts" to help you get back into your account when locked out.
Now you will ask:

Q. What are Trusted Contacts?
- Trusted contacts are people(your friends) you can reach out to if you ever need help getting into your Facebook account (ex: if you forget your Facebook password and can’t get into your email account to reset it).

So, Why did I named this article as 'Secure Facebook Account using Trusted Contacts' ?
- Yes, I named it right. As it is developed to prevent intruders from accessing your Facebook account easily using Facebook's loophole.


 Surprised!! Read On..

Facebook released this feature to Strengthen one of its feature which was more used by intruders to access Facebook accounts for wrong means rather than the actual purpose.

Warning: this article is meant to encourage security by showing loophole and its solution. Don't use it for wrong means, Author doesn't take responsibility if anyone uses 'part of this article' for wrong means.
 
Let's see what intruders do to access someone's Facebook account who is not using "Trusted Contacts" 


- in Facebook login page, click 'Forgot your password'
- next page, Identify your account, give Victim's full name or account information
- Next page, asks to reset password using email or phone, click 'No longer have access to these'
- it will ask a new email to reach you, give one
- now it asks 'Answer Your Security Question' - click - Recover your account with help from friends
- next page shows steps to recover your account- click continue
- Victim's Friends-list comes now, here intruder use two methods:
    a) they choose their own Fake FB accounts with which he/she has become friend with victim already
    b) they choose any 2 victim's friend with whom he can access codes 
(obviously, 3rd friend is intruder himself)
- provides code and access the victim's account


Solution


What can we do?
- Simple, As the heading suggests, use "Trusted Contacts"


How?


- Go to 'Security Settings' -> Trusted Contacts ->Choose Trusted Contacts


Security Settings

- click 'Choose Trusted Contacts'


- Type name of your 3 or 5 'Trusted Friends' -> select -> confirm


- Re-Enter your password ->Submit

- Done

Now, if intruder tries to access your account using this loophole, he gets this page:


Even if he/she  clicks 'Reveal My Trusted Contacts', it will show :


And it will reveal their names only when intruder knows 'Full name' of any one of your chosen friend.
Even if he/she guesses it right(less probable) he have to get codes from person you have chosen(very difficult) rather than those whom he wishes to choose!!

Remember, your account will be more secure if along-with you & your friends have secure accounts. So, spread this knowledge.

Happy Facebooking !!
:) :)