Facebook has posted an overview showing how user passwords word and how they protect them. People can share, reuse, or steal passwords. Therefore, Facebook has created security measures to help protect user accounts and has summarized the important steps users should follow when it comes to passwords.
How Facebook protects user passwords
When your password is saved, Facebook masks it so none of Facebook’s employees can see it. The process includes a function called scrypt that replaces your actual password with a random number of characters based on a cryptographic key. With this technique, Facebook can verify that you are signing in with the correct password without it being saved in plain text.
- Detecting Suspicious Activity – When Facebook sees that you haven’t entered your password correctly, or are connecting from a different device than usual, it requires a verification question to determine if you really own the account.
- Login Alerts – Users can request a notification from Facebook in case of suspicious activity.
- Stolen login data: Facebook regularly monitors publicly published databases that show stolen login credentials. Users often use a combination of email and passwords across multiple services. If Facebook detects that the email you use on Facebook is part of that database, it will prompt you to change your password when you sign in again.
- Security Key: Facebook has introduced a security key registration feature that you store on a special USB device. This measure is important for journalists, politicians and other at-risk users.
How to secure your Facebook account
Facebook has posted a few steps to check if your account is secure:
1. Change Password: If you don’t know where to change your password, here are the links for Facebook and Instagram. Avoid reusing passwords across different services.
2. Password Type: You should choose a password that will be calculated as safe. General rules say that the password should be a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
3. Security Key and Two-Factor authentication: When you log in with your password, Facebook asks for a security code or for you to click on a security key to verify that it is really you.
To learn more about Facebook’s security, click the following link.
