INTERNET STREETS ARE NOT SAFE: TWO WAY AUTHENTICATION

by Chiamaka Ohadiugha

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In a world where technology is growing on a high speed, a lot of criminal things still go on. The security of users and their information is questioned, if at all they are safe to freely engage without having an worry. I have heard and read stories on how accounts and handles from social media were hacked, but I have never felt it would be my case some day. I have always checked my settings to see that my security is properly up to date. well!!!! guess some humans grow in their skill in intruding into other peoples space ands want to carry out their missions.

Have you experienced any kind of hacking on your social media accounts and because of that you open new accounts, or you have never experiened such and will like to prevent any incident before it happens. well at the end of this read, you get to see what I did immediatley I noticed that my account was hacked.

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On the 3rd of March, 2020, at about 2:00 pm (WAT), I got a notification my instagram asking me to identify a particular information. I was first in shock, but went ahead to view the information, and I saw a totally different login, with the funniest email address I have ever seen. One thing I forgot to do was copy the phone number there, but my mind was occupied with rage, all I wanted to do was get my Intagram account back.

The first thing I did was to reject the login I was seeing, it was not me obviously. The next thing I did was to changed my password. Now this didn’t come easy because not only did the code come late, entering it was another issue but I kept on with it. after rigorous trials, my new password was finally saved….. I signed “oh finally” I thought. I didn’t know there was one more thing to combat.

All this while I was getting back my account from my email box. I finally openned my instagram account and even though my new information stated saved, I was still logged out of my account. a couple of further inputs and it was successful this time, which meant that my account was back to normal.

Now the account was back, and the first thing I realise is that I already had messages from friends. some already had dicussion with this fraud.

I panicked!!!!….. what could be worse than this.

In a bid to calm down and correct mistakes that had already taken place, I alerted everyone of the error in the messages they had received and cleared the fact that it was fraud.

Then!!!!!!!!!!!

I found out that, quite a lot of people were sent this message as well, I had to message every single person that got the message. Well those who had not openned it I did not bother, I just simply hit the “Unsend” option.

phewww!!!!!!! I finally got my account back running.

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Now this is the part that you need to take seriously. After the whole back and forth, I got the best advice on what to do after retriving my account. “TWO WAY AUTHENTICATION”

The two way authentication process gives you the best options you could ever wish for in terms of protecting your social media apps. There are two options, via text message or through an app.

Best belive that I secured my account both ways, did not want to take chances again.

Via text message, you are simply sent codes which you are advised to screenshot and save for future purposes. The app on the other hand is called “Duo” and you can get it from ios or Android. It is recommended from instagram itself, so have no worries… I hope.

I hope this has englighted you and given you a valid information on what to do in case of a possible hack on your social media accounts. from time to time, update yor security logins on any of your apps. The DUO app, also enables two way authentification for as many apps as possible.

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Stay Safe!!!!!!!

Be Security concious!!!!

Till my next read, Cheers!!!