It has been revealed that Facebook will start notifying users it believe their accounts have been compromised to take measures that will help them secure their accounts from hackers.

 

According to reports, the social network will warn people when it has strong suspicion that an account has been compromised by a nation-state. If an account is suspected to have been hacked, Facebook warns that the affected accounts should be rebuilt or replaced instead of the usual password resetting it had used in the past.

 

Facebook will provide a user whose account has been compromised an option to secure the account by turning on a feature called 'login approvals' which sends a one-time confirmation text to the account's registered mobile phone whenever a login is made from a new device or browser thus making hacking very difficult.

 

A user with a suspected compromised account will be presented with a message with the headline: "Please Secure Your Accounts Now".

 

The message reads: "We believe your Facebook account and your other online accounts may be the target of attacks from state-sponsored actors."

 

According to Facebook, the message is not an indication that Facebook itself has been hacked in any way. Instead it alerts users that their own system has been compromised. Facebook says it will not explain how it spots whether a user has been compromised, but added: "We plan to use this warning only in situations where the evidence strongly supports our conclusion.

 

"We hope that these warnings will assist those people in need of protection, and we will continue to improve our ability to prevent and detect attacks of all kinds against people on Facebook."

 

It will be recalled that one of the most high-profile state-sponsored cyber attack took place last year when North Korea was accused of attacking Sony Entertainment.