Facebook tests new "Security Check" tool to fend off account hijacking

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crime | hacking | security

Ever worried that someone else might access your Facebook account?

Facebook helps with this – as well as Google, PayPal and plenty of other platforms, Facebook can send alerts any time there’s a new login, and there are various versions of device management that will list all the devices that have accessed your account.

But how many users skip by these tools, if they even know they exist?

On Wednesday, Facebook released a new feature that takes its security tools and puts them directly in front of users’ faces, so skipping them or being oblivious to the tools is all that much harder.

The new tool, which is just a test at this point and has only been rolled out to some users, is called Security Checkup, as Facebook said in its official post.

Those who see the test appear on their News Feed will be able to change their passwords, turn on login alerts, and clean up login sessions simply by clicking through the screen prompts.

The Security Checkup will appear over the top of Facebook’s site and will prompt users to explore various options to increase their security.

Then, Facebook will walk users through password security options and show the various gadgets that are logged into different Facebook services.

That should make it pretty easy to spot somebody who’s logging onto your Facebook services without your say-so.

None of these security options are new, mind you.

The tools are available to all Facebook users, but Security Checkup’s purpose is to make them much harder to miss.

Depending on feedback, Facebook is hoping to make the new feature available more broadly and whenever users want to access it.

It might be just a slight tweak, but – much like the privacy dinosaur – anything that gets security options out of the dark backrooms of drop-down menus and into the light of day, right under our noses, sounds like a good move!

If Facebook’s selected you to test the new feature, please do let us know what you think of it in the comments section below.