When Facebook Gets Hacked

What are your Facebook habits?

Do you check your news feed or post items multiple times per day? Do you have an application on your cell phone? Do you use the messaging component in place of email?

For resident Autumn Geist, Facebook use is almost a necessity, and her online habits reflect her busy lifestyle as a mother, volunteer, and marketer. Through her personal account she acts as administrator of HSO and booster organizations for District 202, non-profits, the Naperville Jazz Festival, Spring Into Safety abduction awareness seminar, and music production company Soulistic 360.

She logs on first thing in the morning, and spends portions of the day posting photos or updates to her personal page, promoting events, and sending messages.

“People don’t use email the same way anymore,” she noted.

She said her connectedness to so many groups likely made her a desireable candidate for hacking. By wiping away her contact information, hackers effectively stole four years of information and connections that Geist built.

“It’s smart because they know you can’t do anything,” she said.

This past Sunday Geist’s daughter informed her that several uncharacteristic photos were being posted to her mother’s wall. While Geist frequently posted photos of her family’s activities, these new images were cars and shoes. Several friend requests she’d left pending had also been accepted.

Geist said she was immediately kicked out when she tried to access her account through Facebook Mobile. Her password had been changed. The hacker (or hackers) switched the order of her name, and removed her email and phone contact information. They also changed her email account password.

What most upset Geist is that a stranger now has access to friends and business connections whose information is not available to the public. It’s also a window to her children’s pages, including her son, who holds a secret account to take advantage of Facebook games.

"It’s like having someone in your house, in your drawers,” she said.

Geist doesn’t recall clicking on anything that may have incited the breach on her account; two days prior she said noticed a pair of gym shoes randomly posted to a cousin’s wall, and made a point not to click through.

While Facebook has a help page for abuses and policy violations, Geist said she’s received no response from Facebook administrators to reinstate her account. To let friends know what happened, she sent a message out through another Facebook user.

While other administrators can post messages to some of the pages she oversees, others, like Spring Into Safety, can’t be accessed at all right now. It’s left her unable to promote upcoming events—or reach out to some acquaintances.

One online security expert says diligent online security practices are the most effective way to prevent hacking.

“With the ever-growing technology population with phones, computers, cameras, there’s just a wealth of information for people to steal from you,” said Downers Grove police officer Robert Jacobs. He also serves as Vice President of Intelex Investigations, a firm based out of Lisle that performs computer forensics and other investigative work. He deals with issues from security to Internet exploitation of children.

He says that in most cases, the victims of hackers are individuals who “want to be more convenient than secure” in their Internet practices, like keeping accounts logged in at all times. However, he emphasized anyone may fall victim. So get to know the security settings of your online accounts. When choosing passwords, Jacobs recommends incorporating both upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols.

“I tell people when time change comes to check the smoke detectors, it’s usually a good time to change your password with some of your majorly used accounts. It can never hurt to be too safe.”

He also advises caution with the site’s many add-ons, particularly games.

“I know you want to be involved with your friends, but don’t do any of the games, or give applications access to your account,” Jacobs said. “If you do, make sure it’s a very tight window.”

A recent trend called “click-jacking” allows advertisers access to a user’s account information by creating a fake “like” button.

Geist said she'll be more selective in the information she posts from now on, particularly with photos.

While Geist acknowledged that hacking is a risk you’re forced to take with participation on social media, she thinks Facebook should have a way to address these situations for businesses that pay the site to advertise.

For those who are looking to promote through Facebook, Jacobs advises looking toward a more obvious platform first.

“For me I would say you’re better off using your own website to promote yourself rather than going through social media,” he said. “You set the security, and generally no one’s going to hack my personal business website.”

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