Just last week (Saturday 17th March), Cambridge Analytica had been caught in a data breach scandal, however it happened way back in 2014. It was described as a form of “data harvesting” where over 50 million accounts were under threat of data breach.

As a company with over 1.4 Billion active daily users, anything like this is undoubtedly going to cause some news to stir around, and it took another 2 years for Facebook to act. To this day, it is reported that plenty of the profile data exploited is still floating around the web.

Amid concerns, Facebook’s stock market value plummeted $37 billion, a record 7% fall in their total share value. The data breach aimed to alter the political votes, ideally helping Trump get elected and to aid the Brexit vote, it was a way to alter users decisions by leaning their profiles towards the vote they wanted. This would include more news about Donald Trump, which could mean more negative views surrounding immigrants appearing.

Now, if you own a social media account (let’s be honest, who doesn’t these days?) there’s a good chance that someone has attempted or succeeded in hacking your account, it is quite easy once you know the steps…

The first and most common technique is phishing, which involves sending targets an email that directs them to send their details across, this can be used to break into their personal accounts, it is so popular as it tricks users into believing registered companies require their personal details for important updates or for purchases they’ve made recently.

Last year’s breach on US company Equifax, one of the World’s leading credit reporting firms had released personal information of 150 Million Americans, therefore it’ll be a safe assumption that someone you know has had their debit/credit card details stolen or accessed by a hacker.

How can you stay safe now?

Passwords, passwords, passwords! I couldn’t stress enough how important it is to have a password no-one else would think of guessing. It is best having no relevance to your life/family/friends/hobbies etc. as it is easy for hackers who know about you to cross-reference the information.

Use two-factor authentication to layer your security. Having more than a password is great to ensure it takes effort and patience for any hacker to breach you

Try a VPN service when you’re away from home. See it to protect your location, hackers cannot copy your Static IP Address and gather personal details this way. Your IP as a result will constantly change, lowering the chance of hackers getting access.

Most importantly stay safe, your data is easier to access than you’ll imagine!