The sensitive information which can be manipulated by hackers may include the school name, the graduation school name, pet names, favourite music, restaurants and places. The problem is so critical that even the middle name of the user’s mother can be extracted and manipulated through photo tags shared on social media openly.

The FBI office warned that the cyberattackers love to exploit online users and can use their sensitive information to reset accounts’ passwords. In worst cases, malware actors can control the account and even steal the data stored in the user’s account.

The FBI Charlotte Office is warning the social media users to pay close attention to the information they post on their accounts. The warning mentions that although several trending social media topics seem like fun games, these programs can expose essential answers to common password retrieval security questions to the hackers.

The FBI encourages you to be vigilant and carefully consider the negative outcome of sharing personal information online.

Enable MFA Whenever Available

The U.S. Domestic Intelligence and Security Service department has advised the users to check their account’s security setting to ensure that the hackers do not find an advantage or easy way to hack your social media account.

The FBI also suggested social media users enable two-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever possible.

The agency said some service providers require multi-factor authentications, but it is optional for others.

If there is a choice, always go with the multi-factor authentication whenever possible. You must use MFA when you are accessing personal information like your primary email account, and your financial and health records.

Google and Microsoft also Recommend MFA

Last year Google and Microsoft said that MFA is also an option if users don’t want their social media to get hacked, or their data to be lost. Representatives from Microsoft Group Program Manager for Identity Security and Protection have confirmed that the use of MFA decreases the risks of social media account hacking and data theft by 99.9%.