7Investigates: Computer hack locks local woman out of Facebook

Marie.

But Marie hasn’t been allowed to post anything since May.

“I went to go on my account and it wouldn’t let me and then it all of a sudden said it was disabled,” says Marie.

Turns out, Marie’s computer had been hacked.

“They got into my credit cards, changing passwords, Netflix, all kinds of things,” says Marie.

And the hackers changed her facebook profile picture, to an ISIS flag.

“I was very sad. I couldn’t believe it, I was very upset,” says Marie.

Facebook shut the page down, wiping 11 years of photos and videos away.

“I  feel violated. Like I don’t know where any of that is, I don’t know who has it,” says Marie.

Marie says for 3 months, she’s tried to create new Facebook accounts in a million different ways.

“Every time I tried, they disabled it, they said I don’t follow community standards,” says Marie.

She says no one from Facebook will talk to her.

“I tried to get in touch with Facebook by email and just on Facebook, just trying to get in touch with them, nothing. No response,” says Marie.

Marie says she just wants all of her memories back, either through reinstating her account, or at least allowing her to access it again.

“Check my account, see that I’m a good person,” says Marie.

7 Investigates has contacted Facebook multiple times, but has not yet heard back.

“Hopefully just Facebook hears people that are in my shoes and helps them open their accounts,” says Marie.

As for protecting yourself from hackers on Facebook?

First, choose a password that is difficult to guess, yet easy to remember.

Facebook also has a setting you can enable, where they send you a security code through text, that you must enter before you’re allowed to log in. “Two-factor authentication can be a pain, but it is less of a pain than having your bank account drained by hackers or social media profiles stolen,” says Allan Liska.

Liska says hackers get your personal data in one of two ways:

1. They infect your system with malware and use that malware to collect data on you.

2. They break into companies, websites, organizations and steal account data.

To protect against the first, the best advice is to run a strong anti-virus program, like BitDefender, Trend Micro, or Symantec and keep it up to date. In addition, make sure you are running the latest version of anything that touches the Internet, such as your web browser or email program.

The second is a harder problem to deal with, but it can be done. Hackers rely heavily on password reuse, so if they steal a database of usernames and passwords from your local pet store,  they are betting that the password you use for the pet store is the same password you use for your bank or social media accounts.

The standard advice is to use a different password for each account you have. Ideally, to protect yourself you want to use a combination of a password manager, such as LastPass or 1Password, these will help generate and save new passwords for every account and remember them across multiple devices, so you can log in to your accounts seamlessly no matter which device.