Don’t Be Like Mark Zuckerberg: How to Protect Your Brand’s Social Accounts From Being Hacked

Over the past few days, several high-profile social networking accounts have been commandeered by hackers.

Katy Perry’s 89 million followers had to endure a tirade of insults. Tenacious D’s Twitter account incorrectly tweeted that member Jack Black had died. And, most recently, Mark Zuckerberg fell victim to his Twitter and Pinterest accounts being taken over by a hacker group. This string of high-profile account hijacks is said to be connected to a recent LinkedIn password dump, where up to 117 million usernames and passwords were stolen.

This probably leaves you wondering two things: First, how does this happen to someone like Mark Zuckerberg? And second, how can I prevent this from happening to my brand’s social accounts?

The answer to the first question is pretty straight forward. According to the hackers, Zuckerberg’s password was “dadada,” and it was found among the LinkedIn passwords. Clearly Zuckerberg, the master of the social media universe, was a little careless when it came to his own online security.

But when it comes to protecting your brand’s identify on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the answer isn’t quite as simple. Fortunately, Mashable has offered up a few tips to help protect your brand from the dreaded hack.

Choose a Good Password

We’re all aware that choosing a strong password is important—meaning, it’s probably time to change your universal password from “password” (admit it, we’ve all been there) to something a lot more complex. Today, a good password should be at least 12 characters—or longer. It should contain numerals as well as lowercase and uppercase letters. And it shouldn’t contain easily guessable personal information (like birthdays).

Never Use the Same Password Twice

So, you’ve devised the perfect password—but that doesn’t mean it’s OK to use that same hack-resistant string of words and numbers on multiple sites. If any one of those sites gets compromised—similar to what happened to LinkedIn—a hacker could try that same password on your Gmail account or Facebook. The best way to avoid this is to have a separate password for every online service you use. In other words, don’t do what Mark Zuckerberg did.

Use a Password Manager

If you’re anything like me, the hardest part about creating multiple passwords with a bajillion letters and numbers each is actually remembering them all. This is where password managers come into play. Services like LastPass and Dashlane store all of your passwords. Just don’t forget the master password for your password manager—that’s the one you’ll really need to remember.

Use Two-Factor Authentication

Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Amazon all add an extra layer of protection by combining something you know (your password) with something you have (your phone). This ensures that even if someone does find your password, they still can’t access your services without physically having control of your phone. Two-factor authentication works like this: You add your phone number to an account. Then, when you log in from a new device or location, you’ll receive an additional code on your phone, without which your password would be useless.