How to Secure Messenger from Hackers & Safe Messenger Alternatives

We live in a digital world and there are messaging platforms out there for us to use and communicate with the people we love and care about. Messenger happens to be one of those messaging options that stands out from the rest.

Many people are using Messenger to communicate, which means that more hackers also use Messenger to defraud unsuspecting people and get away with it. There are times that you think your friend is asking you for money, and you send it, only to discover that your friend’s messenger was hacked and you sent the money to a hacker.

This kind of experience makes it increasingly important to know how to secure Messenger from hackers and ensure that your Messenger account is not compromised.

How to secure Messenger from hackers are straightforward, when these steps are followed, you will secure your Messenger from hackers.

Many people neglect to secure Messenger from hackers by not including a two-factor authentication in addition to their password. Using a strong password with their username is good, but putting two-factor authentication in place gives an added layer of protection that your Messenger needs.

To enable the two-factor authentication on your Messenger:

There are many third-party providers where you can download the Messenger app. However, to secure Messenger from hackers, it is best to download it directly from the play store for Android users, apple store for Apple users, and Microsoft stores. When you download Messenger from third-party stores, you are more vulnerable to hackers accessing your Messenger. Developers on app distribution platforms should use a Code Signing certificate to ensure end users that they are downloading app code from a reliable source. It also establishes the authenticity and validity of the Messenger App.

Another way to secure Messenger from Hackers is that immediately notice that someone is impersonating the account of your friend or someone you know, report the account, and block it. When you report the account, Messenger will be forced to look at the account and find the underlying cause of the impersonation. So, do not just block accounts of people that stalk or disturb you, extend to accounts you know are impersonating people.

Let us assume that you are chatting on Messenger with someone you want to make a transaction with. Before sharing personal details like your address, bank account details, Identification Card number, and the rest of those important details, it is best to verify that the person you are sharing this information with is who they say they are.

If they are claiming to sell a product or service you are interested in, go to their Facebook profile, search for them, and read comments from other people. You have to be careful about sharing these sensitive details because you have to secure Messenger from hackers and prevent these hackers from defrauding you, extorting you, and using your details for their fraud.

If you are still wondering how to secure Messenger from hackers, another thing you can do is use the secret conversation feature. This is an end-to-end encryption messenger, which allows you to call and chat with people more securely. 

To enable this, you have to click on the profile of the person you want to chat with on your Messenger app. When it opens, you will see the “more” options which are indicated with an “i” button. When you click on it, you will see the “Go to secret conversation” option and click on it. There, you can start chatting with encryption. The benefit of this secret conversation is that your chats are more secure because there is encryption that safeguards your message from you to your recipient and vice versa.

Facebook frequently gives out safety notice tips that will help users of their messaging platforms to know exactly what to watch out for and secure Messenger from hackers. It also guides you on how to report accounts you know or think are malicious. So, follow the safety measures they list to secure your Messenger from hackers.

You now know how to secure Messenger from hackers but you need to know that there are also safe Messenger alternatives that you can use if you are still scared of getting your Messenger compromised. They include:

It has an extra layer of protection for its users because messages sent here are encrypted. It never processes users' data, which makes it difficult for hackers to access, and track users' data.

This is another secure messaging option. It also makes use of end-to-end encryption of data. You can download it from the Play Store. All outgoing calls, texts, media, and group chats are secure which makes it difficult for hackers to access them.

It is not free. An open-source chat program called Threema offers several innovative privacy features. Data is encrypted using the NaCl cryptographic algorithm, and an ID key is provided for anonymous login. In addition to audio, photo, video, and text encryption, Threema features a QR "friend-addition" feature, which makes it secure.

Telegram provides top-notch functionality and encryption. Although Telegram asserts that no service provider can intercept any data sent through them, it's important to note that their E2E encryption protocol (MTProto) is a proprietary, internally developed, non-peer-reviewed protocol whose security has not been independently verified by the majority of encryption experts. If you truly need more privacy.

Telegram also has self-destructing messages and a "secret chat" option, but the latter only provides end-to-end encryption. When comparing secure messengers, E2E encryption requires your consent, which is not the best security feature.

Since 2016, end-to-end encryption has been utilized by the Meta-owned app called WhatsApp to encrypt data sent and received. Other features used by WhatsApp include chat history transfers, disappearing messages, end-to-end encryption, and backups that are encrypted from beginning to end. This makes it a secure alternative to Messenger.

Messenger and chatting platforms are subject to attacks from cyber hackers. The steps listed here are some of the ways to secure Messenger from Hackers. The alternatives to Messenger listed here are also secure for users, which makes them better alternatives for you.