Oh man, it’s been a WTF week! My Facebook account was hacked, deleted, and my financial information was compromised. 

Last weekend, I was in New Jersey for a family wedding, when I suddenly noticed a slew of emails from Facebook about my account. I immediately clicked on the button saying “This Wasn’t Me!” and unfortunately, was then informed that my Facebook account had been hacked, that it was permanently disabled due to the hackers violating community standards, and that the decision was final. 

After searching for over an hour, neither I nor my husband could find any way to contact Facebook. Despite Facebook shutting down my account, the hackers attempted to access and use multiple credit cards, which meant changing passwords and account numbers on virtually everything.

Painful!

As pissed as I am at the hackers, I am even more pissed at Facebook, or Meta, its parent company. Not only did they fail to protect me and my data, but they took away 20 years worth of photos, memories, and connections, not to mention my business page, ad account and data, and the Ambitious Career Women’s group, along with all of the content I created for it. Gone, with no way to even contact someone to try and retrieve it.

Can I be honest here for a second? I cried. And ruminated. And cried some more. I felt so violated and used. And so angry that all this work I had put into something was just wiped away in a split second.

Then, the other day my toddler was playing with her magnet tiles (how did they not have these when I was growing up!?) and had a meltdown. She had built a little castle, only to have the whole thing crumble. My immediate response was to comfort her and say, “It’s ok, sometimes things fall apart, but we can always build them back up again.”

As soon as it came out of my mouth, I chuckled. What a simple lesson, and one that I apparently had forgotten. 

Sometimes things fall apart, but we can always build them back up again. 

When I stop and think about what is most important in my life, is it connections with thousands of random people who I may or may not even know? Sure, the lost photos hurt, but many of them are stored on my laptops and frankly, they are just photos. The most important memories and experiences I have had are a part of me and cannot be deleted. Was Facebook really the thing driving my business? Or was it the excellent work I do with my clients, my reputation, and my passion for what I do? 

Actually, it’s been kind of nice not having a Facebook account this week. I’m not subject to the endless doom scrolling and negative news, the arguments about Israel and Palestine, my judgment of others based on their profiles and their judgment of me. I noticed that I often still try to open the Facebook app on my phone. It’s like an automatic action that I am not even conscious of. What does that say about my relationship with digital devices and social media? Is that healthy?

And you know what, I had been meaning to make all of my accounts and financial data super secure for a long time. So this finally forced me to go ahead and do it. Thankfully, the damage wasn’t that bad this time, but it certainly could have been.

I don’t know yet whether I will try to get Facebook to reactivate my account, or whether that is even possible. I don’t know whether I will create a new account. But what I do know, is that while getting hacked SUCKS, I can handle a WTF moment. 

Stay safe out there in the cyberverse!
Alona

PS if we were connected on Facebook and you would like to remain connected, for now you can follow me on Instagram or LinkedIn. I do share some lovely photos from time to time