Three Simple Steps To Keep Your Twitter Account From Being Hacked!
Has Your Twitter Account Been Compromised?
Here’s What To Do If It Has & How To Prevent It…
1. Use A Strong Password To Keep Your Twitter Account From Being Hacked!
I know, life is becoming a sea of passwords to remember. It’s even more difficult when you are told to use special characters such as: _^ # = along with a capital letter and numbers. A secure password should look something like this:
Eb3_Kt#57?cNd It needs to be at least 8 to 10 characters long which will help make it as difficult as possible for people to hack a twitter password.
Sure Richard, how on earth am I supposed to remember a password like that? One of the best Password Manager Software on the market today is, LastPass. It’s Free and CNET gives it a Spectacular 5 star rating. Windows & Mac versions are available.
2. Be leery of suspicious links.
More often than not you will receive a Direct Message (DM) from a follower claiming…
“Did you see this video of someone taping you?” Or, “lol what R U doing in this video.” All these DM’s claiming something is either good or bad about you will be followed by a shortened link as pictured below. There are many other examples and you’ll know them when you see them. (they are that obvious) BUT…
It’s tempting to click the link because often the DM comes from a follower you are familiar with. Once you click on the link, your Twitter account has just been hacked!
The best method of prevention is to NEVER CLICK THESE LINKS if you want to keep your Twitter account from being hacked!
If you’re really curious about a link because it comes from someone you know and trust, you can evaluate any link with whats called a URL Expander which can be found here:
Internet Explorer URL Expander
Firefox URL Expander
Also, if you ever find yourself on a webpage that resembles the Twitter Login page via clicking on a shortened link, don’t give up your username and password by logging in. Always just type Twitter.com into your browser and log in from there.
Okay, so your account has been compromised, now what?
The first line of defense is to change your password. Login and click the little clog wheel, then go to settings as shown below. Get LastPass and make a new secure password. The hackers will no longer have access to your Twitter account.
3. Next you will want to check your list of 3rd party apps that have access to your account. I have allowed access to my account for apps such as: Twitterific, StumbleUpon, NetworkBlogs, Tweetdeck, and a few others. Again, follow the steps above and navigate to your settings.
Find the “Apps” tab as shown below.
Check to be sure you recognize all apps. If you see something you’re not familiar with, click the “Revoke Access” button.
Your account is now secure!
One last piece of advise to keep your Twitter account from being hacked. I recommend tweeting several times throughout the next few days that your Twitter account was hacked. It’s always best to warn your followers not to click any link in a Direct Message they receive from you.
Obviously there is no 100% fool proof way of keeping your Twitter account from being hacked, but following these steps is the best defense!
Please share it with all your friends on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and any other social network.
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I hope you found some useful information here on how to prevent your twitter account from being hacked.
Hi Barbara,
Thank you!
For a while there it was crazy with the amount of Direct Messages I was getting with these virus infected links… I’m talking like 10 or 15 a day. It seemed like people’s accounts were being hacked left and right.
I think Twitter must have come up with some fix because the last few weeks, it has dropped way down.
Thanks for stopping by!
Have a great week!
RichardP
Good article to make people aware. I get these all the time and I never click on them but I know many people do. I actually don’t know what’s the point of getting into my twitter account other than to send out viruses and such. Good that you’re making people aware.
Thanks for the input.
Barbara
Thanks Steve,
Most of the people who get their account hacked are good honest people that offer value in most of their tweets. It really can happen to anyone.
Personally I give it a few days to see if they have figured it out. Once they change their password, all is good. I have un-followed a few people for sending an outrageous number of DM’s with infected links, but not often.
As for stealing your traffic, I think you are safe.
Thanks again Steve for your comment!
RichardP
Excellent value given here…..I never knew about those DM’s. I am pretty skeptical about that stuff anyway so I haven’t clicked any of them yet. Now I’ll be sure to unfollow these people. What is their purpose in trying to hack my account anyway? Do they get to steal my traffic?