How to find out if your social media has been hacked

When it comes to the internet, there are few things more frightening than finding out that one of your social media accounts has been compromised.

Our Facebook accounts in particular are home to countless private details and conversations, which is exactly why we should be diligent about checking the status of our accounts on a regular basis, even if there are no signs of tampering.

If you’ve been on the internet long enough, you’ve likely received an email at some point notifying you that “suspicious activity” has been detected on one of your many online profiles. At that point, the site or service typically locks your account until you have a chance to reset your password.

Here’s the thing: you might not always receive that alert.

Thankfully, it’s exceptionally easy to check and see exactly who has been logging into your account any time you feel the need to do so. On Thursday, Gizmodo published a guide for checking login history for some of the most common accounts, including Facebook, Twitter and Google. You should check out the full post for a detailed explanation, but here are the basics:

Facebook

• Navigate to Facebook.com on a browser and head to the Settings menu. Click on the Security tab on the left-hand side of the page. Find the Where You’re Logged In section near the bottom of the menu and click Edit. You can then end any suspicious sessions by clicking End Activity.

Twitter

• Navigate to Twitter.com on a browser and tap on the profile image in the top-right corner. Select Settings. Find the Your Twitter data section in the menu on the left-hand side of the page. After providing your password, you’ll be able to see the devices that have access to your Twitter account, as well as recent login history with IP addresses.

Google

• Navigate to your Google account page. Click on the Device activity & notifications link under the Sign-in & security header. Review the devices that have access to your account and the latest sign-in events.