Getting hacked has become one of the more common issues faced by people in the present day, and as our daily activities get more and more digitised, our online security has become incredibly important.
Globally, there are daily reports of celebrities and public figures getting their private and intimate information leaked due to social media hacks and various other breaches of online security.
If you have a following yourself, chances are someone has attempted to hack your socials or you have had your accounts hacked at some point. So how does one avoid getting hacked? We reached out to Sajeewa Randula Dissanayake, a social media consultant who has made a name for himself as somewhat of an expert when it comes to recovering celebrity social media accounts that have been hacked.
Sajeewa is best known for having recovered the YouTube account belonging to massive Sri Lankan YouTuber and content creator “Ratta” who had his official YouTube channel, with over 1 million subscribers, hacked, leaving him unable to even access his Google services. However, Sajeewa was able to recover his account and restore it.
He has since gone on to assist a number of famous Lankan creators like Dinakshie Priyasad whose Instagram account with over 900,000 followers was hacked, JONtY SL’s gaming YouTube channel, and he even assisted JanaiPriyai, whose YouTube channel once lost the entirety of their subscriptions after a mistake they made in their settings.
Sajeewa said that he has been handling social media issues for over three years now. However, his services have become more mainstream since Ratta’s incident. He said that he is self-taught, having taken on the subject when he first decided to become an independent musician and market his own music digitally without paying an exorbitant amount of money to television channels to publicise his content. “What I am doing here is not magic but what it is, is a matter of know-how and practice,” he said.
How do you get hacked?
Sajeewa shared with us the typical ways we open ourselves up to hackers, stating that usually hackers will send out a promotional email making you an offer, claiming to have made note of the growth your account is currently experiencing. They will then share with you an advertisement for their “brand”, and prior to publishing this ad, they will kindly ask that you give their product a try – often it is a game, a new software, etc. and in return, they will offer you an impressive monetary incentive. He said that this may even happen via WhatsApp message if you have your number on your social media accounts.
Once you click this link and install it, a virus will be downloaded to your software and through this, the hacker is able to monitor your activity, observe your passwords, and overtake your security.
How not to get hacked
We are told to strengthen our passwords, maybe even change them often. However, Sajeewa said that this is not the way, and it is simply not practical to repeatedly change your passwords. Of course, you should use a strong password, but you must also install a genuine version of a good virus guard. He said you must definitely activate two-factor authentication, adding that one of the primary reasons people get hacked is that they have not activated this. But there are occasions where even that can be bypassed.
He also shared that if you do get hacked, you must take immediate action for recovery and you mustn’t wait around for too long, as the longer you wait, the lesser chance there is for you to recover.
In the occasion of a hack, Sajeewa shared that his role in all this is that he will be your intermediate and he will take on the role of liaising between yourself and your service provider from whom you have been barred service due to getting hacked.
He stated that when you are looking for a digital media strategist or a consultant, you must have a lot of trust in them and you must surrender a lot of your personal details to them, and therefore, it is imperative that you hire based on a good recommendation.
For social media inquiries:
Official website: www.sajeewadissanayake.com
Facebook: @sajeewaliveofficial
