Main Street businesses aren't too small to be noticed by hackers

Internet security isn't just for credit card companies and major retailers.

As more of the world's business is done over the internet, protecting your online presence is a consideration that even small town Main Street needs to be aware of.

"I always figured it would be a bigger business," said Guyla Pohlman, owner of The Wood Cellar in Hampton.

Pohlman has learned the hard way that size doesn't matter when it comes to internet security. While breaches into major retailers and financial institutions may make big headlines, small town shops are not immune to cyber-vandalism. In this case, that means loss of control of The Wood Cellar's official Facebook page.

On February 12, Pohlman received an automated e-mail from Facebook informing her that she'd been removed as an administrator on her business page. While Pohlman herself had two-factor authentication activated on her personal Facebook account, one of her employees did not.

It's not known how the online miscreant was able to gain access to the employee's account. A careless click on an unsecured link or a errant log-in prompt is all it takes for your username and password to be exposed. Whatever the method though, it created an opening that allowed the hijacker access to not just that employee's personal page, but gave them the full run of The Wood Cellar's page as well.

Because the employee also had administrative access to the page, the hijacker was able to add their own (presumably fake) account as an administrator and boot out everybody else.

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