Social media account hacking is on fire … not in a good way. Account hijacking has grown by as much as 1,000% annually in the last few years, with celebrities and politicians so mad about it they’re starting to sue.
The chances of your Instagram, X, Facebook or other account (even Spotify!) getting taken over by spammy bots and data-stealing thieves have never been higher. So don’t sit there all smug thinking, “Oh Kim, that could never happen to little ol’ me!”
A lot of the advice you find online about hacked social media is just plain wrong or, worse, leads to a scammer who will promise to get your account back but only steals your money. Not on my watch!
Here I am to save the day with the moves to make when your social media accounts get hacked. You might want to email this article to yourself. This way, you have it handy when you need it.
Step 1. Sign out on every device
It’s disarming to think about someone else’s hands all over your social account, posting crap on your page. Fully sign out of your account on every device you’ve got.
Depending on the hacking attempt, this can often “kick out” more casual hackers who were piggybacking on automatic sign-ins. They’ll get asked for passwords they don’t have and won’t be able to log in again, so they can’t spam your peeps. Phew. But don’t stop here!
Step 2. Change your password
Log into your account on one device and change your password. The account or settings page will have an option, like this Instagram page. If hackers did get your password (maybe from a big data theft), this will lock them out.
You know the drill. Replace your old password with a strong new one. Make it at least 12 characters with a solid mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.
Step 3. Report the hack
Now, hackers should be mostly locked out of your socials. You can take a deep breath — but don’t stop just yet. Report the hack so the social app can help you roll back hacked messages and freeze your account until you’re sure everything is safe.
This problem is so bad that there’s a dedicated Facebook hacked page. No surprise, there’s also an Instagram hacked page and X’s questionnaire. No TikTok version, yet.
Step 4. Check for surprise changes
No one likes cleaning the house, but it has to be done. Jump over to your account settings and check these sections for any funny business.
- Fake messages or posts: Get rid of them.
- Connected devices: Hackers add their own devices for easy access to accounts. Give them the boot.
- Third-party apps: New apps to track you or steal data might’ve been snuck in while your account was compromised. Remove them.
- Linked accounts: Hackers may have grabbed a bunch of bots or stalker-looking accounts as followers. Bye-bye.
- Your profile photos: Make sure it’s you and not some hot Russian woman, well, unless you are a hot Russian woman like me. 😅
Step 5. One last thing to do
Phew, you’re almost done. Be sure that you enable two-factor authentication for your account. With 2FA, a secondary form of verification is required to prove your identity, rather than just providing your username and password to log into an account. You get a text with a 6-digit number to enter to access your account.
FYI, you can only get 2FA on X if you pay for its $8 monthly Premium service. Annoying, right? Next week, I’ve got the insider scoop on how to get around that and make 2FA for any account a little safer.
If you run into any trouble with these steps …
… Or if a hacker got your account suspended, call them. Keep in mind these social media companies don’t care about you. They don’t want to help you. You will have to be persistent. Here’s a list of popular tech numbers. I wish I could wave my magic wand to make all your hacked accounts good again, but sadly, I cannot.
Speaking of … Cybersecurity experts have found an easy way to spot North Korean hackers. They never use the shift key. They hate capitalism.