Facebook recently revealed that they had user’s passwords saved in text format on a server somewhere. This eventually turned to about 600 million users passwords were stored where employees at Facebook could have had access. With that in mind, you might be wondering what can you do to protect yourself? Well say no more. We’ve got expert advice from Paul Ducklin, a Senior Technologist at Sophos. Sophos is a company that specializes in network and endpoint security.

When asked if we should change our Facebook password, Paul Ducklin had this to say;

Why not? It’s perfectly possible that no passwords at all fell into the hands of any crooks as a
result of this. But if any passwords did get into the wrong hands (and you can bet your boots that the
crooks are trawling through any old data they might have right now, to see if there is anything they
missed before), then you can expect them to be abused. Hashed passwords still need to be cracked
before they can be used; plaintext passwords are the real deal without any further hacking or cracking
needed.
So our advice is: change your password now.

When asked if we should turn on two-factor authentication, Paul Ducklin had this to say;

Yes, turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) now. We’ve been urging you to do use two-factor
authentication everywhere you can anyway – it means that a password alone isn’t enough for crooks to
raid your account.
If you are reluctant to give Facebook your phone number, use app-based authentication, where your
mobile phone generates a one-time code each time you log in.

So with this info in mind, maybe it is time to change that 10 year old password. Something unique, or that doesn’t necessarily have anything that could remind someone of you, seems to be the ticket. If you’re interested on how to generate your own unique password, I suggest checking out this video by the Sophos guys. It might just protect you from the next cyberattack that comes around.