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Article summary

The article contains information about ways to avoid online accounts being ‘hacked’ or taken over by someone without permission.

Top tips and hacks to avoid getting your accounts hacked

Signs that you might have been hacked might include getting lots of “pop ups” from companies offering stuff you haven't even asked for - or your device noticeably starting to slow down.

So, what do you do first if you think you've been hacked?

Tell a parent or carer, and then let your friends know so they can stop themselves being hacked too.

While there’s no foolproof way of keeping your online accounts safe, there's plenty you can do to limit the chance of someone breaking in.

Here are five top tips:

1. Make sure your password isn’t too easy to guess

Lots of people pick a password that’s easy for them to remember, but is also too easy for other people (or computers) to guess. Don’t use your name, your birthday or the word ‘password’ when you create one. And did you know that any individual word from the dictionary can be easily guessed by a hacker's computer?

So create strong – really crazy – passwords.

A strong password is made up of capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Keep it quite long, and make it something that’s not too common, or easy to take a guess at!

2. Always create a brand new password

Trying to remember loads of different passwords can get confusing, so just having one that you use for everything might be tempting. But it's risky!

If one of your accounts is hacked, the hacker will often try the same password across other sites. Having different passwords for everything will make sure the problem doesn’t get even worse.

If you do get hacked, change your passwords on all sites that require logins. This is sometimes a pain, and can seem to take up too much of your time, but you never know what the hackers have access to. Use a password manager to store your passwords, or write them down and keep them in a locked drawer.

3. Never share your password, even with your friends

In this case, caring is not sharing. Don’t give your password out to your friends. The fewer people who have access to your accounts, the better.

4. Think about where you log in from and what you share

If you’re logging into a site from a shared or public computer (like the ones at school), just say no if the site offers to save your password.

Skip anything that's not required. Plenty of companies will ask for more information than they really need. Be especially careful with dates of birth, home addresses or anything that would make you easily identifiable to a hacker.

Make sure you log out of websites and online sessions properly when you’ve finished to avoid other people gaining access to your stuff.

5. ‘Sniff-test’ sites and apps before signing up

Some apps or websites will ask you to log in using a social media or email account. It’s always worth double checking what kind of access you’re giving them before allowing the two to link up.

Does the internet address begin with "https"? The "s" on the end means there's an extra layer of security on the website. Make sure that "s" is there both before and after you log in.

If a site looks a bit weird, ask an adult before signing up; some websites and apps aren’t always what they seem. If they aren’t sure, you can look together for one you both know is secure.

Getting help

Even if you’re really careful, sometimes you can’t stop your account being hacked.

As a rule, keep your virus protection up to date, and make sure you get permission from a parent/guardian before downloading anything from the internet.

If it happens, don’t panic, disable the account and get rid of all the software associated with it by uninstalling it completely.

You can get specific hacking help here from: , , , , , , .

Try to tell someone you trust if you're worried about it.

Article: 5 min read

Learning objectives

(from the set out by the UK Council for Internet Safety)

• ‘I can describe strategies for keeping personal information private, depending on context'

• ‘I can explain what a strong password is and demonstrate how to create one'

• ‘I can describe effective ways people can manage passwords (e.g. storing them securely or saving themin the browser)

• ‘I can explain what to do if a password is shared, lost or stolen’

Glossary

• Hacked: when someone has accessed an account without the owner’s knowledge or permission
• Pop-ups: some information, usually an advert, that displays on top of what you’re looking at
• Https: what you’ll see at the start of a website URL, which shows that it’s likely from a safe source
• Virus Protection: software that is designed to help protect your computer from bugs or hackers

Topic introductions and starters

Before the video:

• Ask pupils to write down three ways to keep their online accounts and apps safe and secure

After the video:

• Discuss the difference between personal, private and public information and clarify the difference between the three types
• Give pupils a printed version of the article and ask them to highlight the words they are not sure about and then share with the rest of the class
• Use the highlighted list from above to check understanding of key vocabulary and specific terminology: hacked, pop-ups, foolproof, symbols, common, password manager, ‘sniff-test’, security, https, virus protection, disable, uninstall, software
• Discuss what they understand by the terms ‘hack’ and ‘hacker’ – hacker can sometimes be used in a positive way like ‘geek’ and ‘gamer’ – and hack is often used to describe a new or interesting way of doing something. Decide on a class definition ofboth
• Practise writing strong passwords – start with something weak and then add numbers and symbols to make it stronger. Make sure pupils know not to use any of these passwords for any of their own online accounts

Discussion Points

• What is a hacker? Is hacking always something bad? Why do people become hackers?

• What are people hoping to get when they hack your account? Do they want money? Information? To impersonate you? To steal from your accounts?

• Why is it wrong to share passwords with your friends? Should you trust them? What about if you argue and stop being friends?

• How can you tell if a website or app is not secure or safe to use? Does it use https? Does it look different to how it used to look? Does it ask for too much information?

Fillers and fast finisher activities

• Summarise the information under each heading to just three short bullet points giving the key information. Then try and reduce that even further to just one sentence
• Create a cartoon strip about a superhero that tackles a supervillain called ‘The Hacker’ using advice from the article
• Write a diary entry from the point of view of a hacker who is struggling to hack into the account of someone who has worked hard to make it very secure

Signposting potential homework activities

• Review all your own passwords and check for easy to hack ones and change them to better, more secure versions
• Create a flow diagram for making a secure but memorable password – outline the steps for choosing words and then adding numbers, punctuation and symbols
• Create a ‘top tips’ style list of easy to remember tips to help avoid your accounts being hacked – add illustrations.

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