Most of the time when I post about Facebook I am telling you how to turn off a feature. Today I am going to recommend you turn one on.
Recently a number of high profile Facebook users found their accounts hacked. The hacking included Mark Zuckerberg, known as one of the founders of Facebook.
I imagine Mr. Zuckerberg’s account hacking has something to do with the rush to release the new security feature I am going to tell you about.
The new feature does something seemingly very simple. It adds an s after the http in the address bar when you are surfing Facebook. That s is extremely important.
Think of s as standing for security; it means that Facebook is providing encryption that will make it extremely difficult for hackers to break into your Facebook account. You have no doubt seen the s on a bank site or when purchasing something via credit card.
Enabling the encryption feature is extremely easy:
- Click on Account on the far right side of your Facebook page.
- Click on Account Settings.
- Scroll down and look for Account Security and click on change.
- Click on the checkbox to enable Secure Browsing.
- If you like, click on the option to “send an email” when another computer or device logs into your account.
- This feature could be a bit annoying. It means that any time you log into your account from a different machine you will receive an email warning you about it.
Account Link
I don’t have a strong opinion about whether to enable the “send me an email” choice, but I would definitely enable the Secure Browsing feature.