What to do if your social media accounts are hacked

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BBC journalist Nick Robinson revealed his social media was hacked to “promote cryptocurrency”, while he remained unable to access it.

The veteran presenter, 61, said his X account had unexpectedly locked him out on Monday, leaving him unable to do anything as a string of unusual posts appeared in his name.

Speaking to co-host Amol Rajan on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, he explained: “I was woken up at about 11 o’clock to find that I had accidentally tweeted to a million people that I was indeed launching a new cryptocurrency called ‘dollar today’ on something called Solana.

“Which you no doubt know about, but I thought was probably one of those drinks that you give to kids after they’ve been swimming.”

Mr Robinson revealed on the morning show that he was still locked out of his account and left with little recourse to challenge his hackers. However, the fraudulent tweets have since been removed.

The incident has left many social media users wondering what they’d do if faced with a similar situation. Here’s everything you need to know about getting hacked, and what you can do about it.

The simplest way to tell if you’ve been hacked is to check for strange activity on your accounts. Posts or messages on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and X/Twitter that you don’t recognise will be an immediate giveaway.

These will quite often be the work of scammers, with the fraudulent activity likely to include links to fake products, investment opportunities, or even malware.

Unfortunately, if hackers are able to access one of your Facebook or Instagram accounts, they probably won’t stop at the single platform. This is because these two apps – both owned by Meta – can be linked to make login more streamlined.

If you also find yourself logged out of your social media accounts and unable to log back in, hackers have probably changed your details to keep you out.

Some platforms may notify you of attempted or successful logins on the corresponding app or linked email, giving you the opportunity to report the hack early.

According to the National Crime and Security Centre (NCSC), the first thing to do is contact your account provider. Each social media platform has their own account recovery process which will slightly differ. Most large platforms have robust procedures in place to combat fraudulent activity.

Next, they advise changing passwords across platforms, if you’re still able to access your account or when you are granted access. To be hacked, the hacker will need to know your email address and password, so any social media, website, or email account where you’ve used the same combination is at risk.

Once you’ve done this, you can log all devices and apps out of your account. Many platforms offer this option, which will log you out of the social media account anywhere that isn’t the device you’re currently using.

At this point your accounts should be safe again, but the NCSC advises that a few more steps can be taken. Most social media platforms offer two-step verification (2SV) that will provide an extra layer of protection to your accounts.

This usually works by sending you a PIN or code, or requiring you to use a specialised app to authenticate yourself. Adding this step means a criminal cannot access your account with your email and password alone.

Finally, it’s a good idea to message all your contacts and inform them of what has happened. You can do this alongside deleting any fraudulent posts and messages, where platforms allow for this.

Source: independent.co.uk