Passwords, deleting old posts are keys to Facebook security: experts

(WJBK) - It's been almost a week since the largest security breach in Facebook's history.

Cyber experts have some advice on how to stop the bad guys from stealing your data - and it involves getting rid of precious pictures from your feed.

One key is to change your password often, said Melanie Duquesnel, from the Better Business Bureau.

There are 50 million reasons for the serious reminder. That's how many people have been hacked. Identities taken over on Facebook. 

Cyber risk expert with Burns and Wilcox, David Derigiotis talks about the importance of password security.

"Often time we hear that it was a sophisticated attack and really it wasn't," he said. "This time there was a little more to it. They were able to export of honor ability in the coding which give them full access to our profile information. Didn't matter what privacy settings we had, it was on restricted access that was given because of the flaw that was exploited," he said.

To know why this has happened, you have to know who is doing this?

"That's the problem, we don't know who they are yet," Derigiotis said. "We don't know what their motive is. There have been so many data breaches, so many compromises that have happened to so many organizations. Criminal syndicates or nation states, they all have different motives, whether it is intellectual property or they're looking to create identity theft."

Don't wait to find out.  Do something now. Derigiotis says the first thing to do? Stop the data trail you're leaving behind by erasing old posts.  The more data on your page, the easier to hack. So delete old pictures and posts.  

"You're leaving a lot less information that's available," he said. "Maybe they want to know what your whereabouts are, location information, your normal routine. If you limit leaving that information behind it will be harder for them to put the full picture together about your life."

Then there's other apps you use. Many ask to log on using my Facebook account? Sure, why not? Well, there's good reason not to.  

"Your login information on Facebook is now used across all those other applications," said Duquesnel. "So you now you have said, 'That's OK, I'll use it on Stitch Fix, Realtor.com, Walmart.com, Amazon.com.' Potentially if you also have your billing information in there like your credit card information, that could be hacked as well."