Having intruders on our accounts is very dangerous. They could have access to our personal data, be able to control our equipment, impersonate our identity and, ultimately, compromise our privacy and security. There are many factors that can cause this problem. Cybercriminals use different techniques to achieve this. Sometimes we find a message that tells us: ” Security alert on your account .” Can there really be intruders or is it a bug? We are going to talk about it in this article. We will also give advice to avoid being victims of this type of problem.
Intruders on Internet accounts
We can say that this is one of the biggest targets for hackers and one of the biggest problems for users. It is a reality that our data has great value on the Internet and that means that it can be stolen through very different methods. It is also possible to control a social network, account of a streaming platform, email …
If an attacker has access to our e-mail account, for example, the possibilities would be very wide. It could know our personal data, information that we have stored, contacts, impersonate our identity … All this puts our privacy at risk and is a problem that must be avoided .
But this is not exclusive to email or social media. The truth is that they can access all kinds of platforms or services. They can take advantage of existing vulnerabilities, mistakes we make, malware in the systems … This is going to pose a problem for our security.
Security Alert Message
Sometimes we can receive a security alert message indicating that someone has been able to enter our account. This, at least at first, could scare users. They do not really know if it is a false alarm or if there really is someone on that account.
This could happen with an SMS that we receive or an e-mail that reaches us. It usually happens when you log in from our account on a new device or an unknown network. That service sees something strange and alerts us so that we can check and see if someone has been able to enter without our consent.
Let’s take as an example that we start our Facebook account or any social network on a new computer. This service will automatically detect that we have entered from a new device and it will send us a security alert message. You are going to send us an email, for example, where you indicate that you have logged in from a certain computer, an IP address or geographical location.
Now, are there really intruders or is it a false alarm? It is certainly very important to know how to detect this. We can take into account some points to determine whether to take that alert into account or not.
See if we have connected
Normally services such as Facebook, Gmail and the main platforms have a history where we can see who has connected. We can analyze if there is any suspicious login, other than us. In case there is nothing strange, the normal thing is that this alarm is false and simply reflects that we have logged into a new device or it is a failure.
See the location
Without a doubt another point to take into account is to see the geographical location . It also shows us where we have connected from. Is there any login from another country or some strange location? It could be a fraudulent login.
Type of device
Of course we can also see the type of device from which the session has been started. Usually the operating system, brand or type of the device appear. In this way, in case something does not correspond, we can identify a possible problem.
Connection time
Timing is also important. It will give us an image of how much that session has taken place and we can thus check if it was really us or it was some kind of attack. As in the previous cases, the main services offer this information.
How to prevent them from entering online accounts
We have explained that security alerts when logging into a website or any online service can be something that we face. Sometimes it could be a false alarm and it actually appears because we have logged into a new device. But it could also be a real attack.
Use a strong password
Something essential is to have keys that are strong and complex. It is very important that they are totally random and have letters (upper and lower case), numbers and other special symbols. In this way we can avoid brute force or fortune-telling attacks.
Enable two-step authentication
Beyond the password, another extra security barrier is enabling two-step authentication . It basically consists in that when you try to log into an account, you are going to request a code that we can receive by SMS or by any application that we have linked to. One more way to verify the authenticity of a user.
Keep computers protected
Of course our devices must be adequately protected. It is necessary to have security programs, such as a good antivirus or firewall. There are many tools that we have at our disposal and it is something that we must apply regardless of the type of device we use.
Update systems and applications
Another issue to take into account is the importance of updating the systems and any program that we use. To avoid intruders in the accounts we must avoid that there are vulnerabilities. Those flaws can be exploited by hackers to sneak in keyloggers and other threats that allow unwanted access.
Use only official software
We must always use official programs . It is true that sometimes we can opt for some third-party tools, with alternative functions and that may even offer certain improvements. But this could be a problem, since we do not know if it could have been maliciously modified to compromise us.
Common sense
Perhaps the most important of all. It is essential not to make mistakes, maintain common sense, and avoid logging into insecure networks, opening dangerous attachments, etc. In many cases the hackers will require the interaction of the victim.
In short, these are some questions that we can take into account to avoid intrusion into our accounts. It is very important that we always protect our equipment and that we are not victims of any type of attack when browsing the Internet.
