If you use Facebook, you likely have a lot of personal information stored there. If you use it for your business, then your professional reputation also partially relies on what you put into the social network. If you aren’t protecting your Facebook account, you could be at risk for identity theft or worse. That’s why using two-factor authentication on your social media accounts is becoming more important than ever.

Facebook has had two-factor authentication available for a long time, but before recent changes, it required the user to provide a phone number. This made a lot of people not want to use the system. Moreover, the update comes months after Facebook admitted that they had a bug in their previous two-factor system, that was sending users who set up the security protocol SMS notifications. Users were getting their Facebook notifications from 362-65, the 2FA number they used. If a user replied, it would be posted to their profile page.

Now the social media giant will accept apps like Google Authenticator and Duo Security, and has refined the setup process making it much simpler for the average user to set up. This change comes at a great time, as SMS has been at the center of a good number of two-factor hacks. In other words, try to avoid using text messages for your two-factor authentication. Sure, it’s better than not having the additional layer of security, but a lot of recent cases have found that it’s not impossible for hackers to intercept your 2fa codes and use them to gain access to your accounts.

To set up 2FA for Facebook, follow these instructions:

• Go to Settings
• Click on “Security and Login”
• Navigate to “Use two-factor authentication”
• Select type of account you want to use to authenticate.

Two-factor authentication sets up an extra layer of security to protect your sensitive information against infiltration and theft. If you would like to learn more about two-factor authentication for your business, call 415 IT today at (415) 295-4898.