VKontakte is the largest social network in the CIS countries - the service is visited by more than 955 million users monthly. VKontakte accounts are used for authorization on a huge number services and sites. In addition, relatively recently, network users were able to send cash directly via messages.

The high popularity of VKontakte makes it an attractive platform for attackers. In these circumstances, it is very important to ensure maximum security for your account. You can get additional account protection by setting up two-factor authentication (2FA).

How to enable two-factor authentication for a VKontakte account

• Login to your account and go to the page Settings. Then select the tab Safety.
• The topmost section is called Login confirmation . Click the "Connect" link.

• A pop-up window will open informing you that when you enable two-factor authentication, your mobile phone number will be used to access your account. Click the button Start setting up.
• In the next window you need to check your phone number or enter a new number, then click the button Get code.
• A confirmation code will be sent to your phone number. Enter this code in the field below, and then click the button Confirm And Complete setup.
• This completes the setup. Now, when you try to log into your account from an unknown device, an SMS message with an access code will be sent to your phone.

In section Login confirmation by clicking on the link Reserve codes you will be able to generate and save emergency codes that can be used when you do not have access to your mobile device.

As a second stage of authentication, instead of an SMS message, you can use one-time codes generated in an authenticator application that works using the TOTP algorithm. To activate this method authentication, pre-install on your mobile device authentication app, such as Google Authenticator or Authy, and follow these simple steps:

1. In section Login confirmation next to the option Applications for generating codes click the "Enable" link.
2. For security reasons, you will be asked for your current account password. Enter the correct password and “Confirm”.
3. A QR code will appear on the next screen that you need to scan using mobile application. If your image is not recognized by the scanner, then manually enter the 16-digit secret key into the application.
4. Enter the 6-digit one-time code generated in the application. After this, authentication through the application will be configured.

After successfully completing two-factor verification in your browser, you can remember this browser so that you no longer enter the second factor when logging into your account on this device.

If necessary, you can reset codes on all trusted devices or only on current device. In this case, during the next authorization attempt, you will be asked for a confirmation code again.

If someone tries to log into your account, you will receive a pop-up warning about this.

How to disable two-factor authentication in your VKontakte account

At any time, you can disable two-factor authentication for your VKontakte account. However, remember that in this case, to access your account, an attacker will only need to know your password. To disable two-factor authentication, follow these steps:

1. Go to the menu

The largest social network VKontakte has introduced two-step authorization on the site. Now, if the user wishes, in addition to entering a login password, he can protect his account by entering a PIN code. The VKontakte pin code will provide better protection your data from hacking. How to activate and correctly configure the “Login Confirmation” function of VK. You can also find out how to use this function correctly by reading our article.

What is a PIN code for VKontakte?

So, let's get you up to speed. The developers have been seriously concerned about the problem of protecting the personal data of their VK users for a long time. At first, hacking the page was a piece of cake, but over time, security methods became more and more complex. And now in the battle of hackers against Contact there has been a serious advantage in favor of the latter.

After linking the account to a mobile phone number, the developers managed to significantly reduce the wave of page tampering. Soon the same developers optimized everything they had developed over the years by entering a PIN code for VK. Now everyone who has a VKontakte account can set up the PIN code function. Thus, the user receives double protection for his account.

To authorize, in addition to filling out the login and password fields, you will need to enter a special code that will be sent to you via free sms message. Naturally, this SMS will be tied to your number mobile operator. If you don't want to bother with SMS messages, then you can use special application for a smartphone - a code generator for VKontakte. It is also strongly recommended to copy yourself a list of backup codes that you can use if you don’t have your phone at hand. You should immediately reassure some “lazy” users - the PIN code comes only upon your request and only after you activate this function.

How to enable PIN login confirmation?

In order to enable “Login Confirmation” in Contact, you need to go to the menu on your page "My Settings". In the tab "General"- find the settings group “Security of your page”. Opposite the point "Login Confirmation" you need to press the button "Connect".

Now, when you log into your VK account, you will be prompted to “Enter the code.” Which, in fact, is what you should do.

Message: “An attempt was made to log into your account from an IP address”

The pin code will only be valid once. One input - one PIN code. Even if “evil people” manage to get your PIN code and login with your VKontakte password, they will not be able to use them. And you will receive in the form of a pop-up window the message “An attempt was made to log into your account from an IP which will contain the IP address of the computer from which they tried to illegally log into your account.

In this case, you should not panic, because... The contact has already prevented an attempt to hack your page. And you will be able to identify and punish a person caught in trouble by the IP address of his computer.

“Remember browser” VKontakte or how to disable entering a PIN code

If you do not want to use the PIN input function because, for example, you are at home and log in from your PC. Then you should use the “Remember Browser” function; to activate it, you just need to check the box that pops up. The function will allow you to remember the location and your native browser from which you log in and you will no longer need to enter a PIN code for this browser on your PC. At any time, you can reset all settings either on the current device or on all verified devices.

IMPORTANT! Just turn it off this function You will not be able to confirm your login with a PIN code. When you first log in from your browser on a computer, laptop, smartphone or telephone, you should enter your PIN code once and be sure to check the “Remember browser” box. After this, you will not need to enter your PIN code every time you log into VK from these devices.

If your SIM card is lost or fails, and the PIN code confirmation function is activated, you can use the recovery form via email. The introduction of two-step authorization will protect your personal data, and your account will always be protected by the VK security service.

The practice of double entry is already successfully used in many large social networks, such as Twitter, Facebook, Google. Many online banks also use a confirmation PIN. And finally, VK.com has also strengthened the protection of our personal data.

The security of your VKontakte page is your personal concern. Whenever a page is “hacked,” it just means that its owner did not take care of security and his login and password were stolen in one way or another. That is, it was stolen from his computer, phone or tablet. Therefore, everything depends on you here. How to ensure the security of your page so that it cannot be “hacked”?

VKontakte password

First of all, you need to understand what a password is and remember its meaning. Of course, we all understand that a password is something secret, or rather, a word that allows access (or some combination of characters). But if everyone knew how to come up with a good password and how to handle it correctly, then there wouldn’t be so many problems with it. Let's figure it out in order.

What should the password be? How to come up with it?

When you register with email, VKontakte, or anywhere else, you are asked to come up with a password and remember it. You should not make a password too short or too simple. Why? Because then someone can pick it up. Maybe now you are thinking: “Who might need to guess my password?” However, when it does happen, you will only have yourself to blame. If you make the password “123456” or “qwerty”, then it will be too easy to guess such a password.

• The password must be long enough (at least 8 characters).
• Use capital letters, small letters, and preferably some other symbols in your password - and mix it all up. Remember that the same word with a capital letter and with a small letter are different passwords!
• Practice entering it somewhere in advance. When you register, when you enter your password, you will only see dots (symbols) on the screen as you enter your password (this is done so that no one can peek), so you need to be prepared for this.
• Most importantly: remember your password! Remember which layout - English or Russian to type it in, where the large letters are, where the small letters are, where the numbers are - in general, exactly everything about how to type it. If you make a mistake in even one character, it will no longer be the same password.

Attention! Even the most complex password will not protect your page if you have a virus on your computer or an SMS interceptor on your phone, or if you click on suspicious links. This will be discussed further. Read to the end.

Do I have a strong password? Yes or no?

Food for thought: 97% of Russians said they use good passwords. A study found that 95% of all passwords contain only letters or numbers, and only 4.7% have additional characters. Half of those surveyed admitted that they rarely or never changed their passwords, even if they were hacked. It turns out that in reality only 4% of people have good passwords. Therefore, if you do not want to be hacked, make yourself a strong password as soon as possible.

Why should the password be kept secret?

If someone finds out your password, they will be able to gain access to the same places you have access to. For example, when you log into VK, you enter your address email, with which you registered, and password. The address is usually not a secret, and if you also find out the password, the attacker will enter Contact as if it were you yourself. But that’s not so bad - after all, he will be able to change the password, and then you will no longer be able to log in!

Now you understand that the password cannot be told to anyone and cannot be written down on a piece of paper.

What is an account?

An account is what appears on a website (for example, VKontakte) when you register there. Your name and other data, your virtual character - this is account. Access to it is given only with a password. First you enter your username (phone number or email address) and then your password. You need to remember both.

When you enter the site, the browser prompts you to save your password. Should I agree?

No, it's better to disagree. Firstly, since you won’t have to enter the password in the future, you may forget it, and when you need it (reinstall Windows, change computer, etc.), you will find yourself in an unpleasant situation. Secondly, if someone sits down at your computer, he will have access without any password to the site for which you saved the password. Do you need this?

How not to lose your password and access to the page?

Be careful

Always remember that attackers need your password and are after it. For what? This is a different question, the reasons may be different. Even if you don’t have anything particularly valuable in VKontakte, your account itself is valuable to them. If they take possession of it, they will be able to send advertisements on your behalf (though not for long, because then this account will be blocked).

How can they take a bait and trick you out of your password? Situations are different. For example, you want to get into Contact, you start entering an address and make a mistake in one letter. Believe me, this happens very often. And the attackers also know this and in advance place their website, very similar to VK, at this seemingly erroneous address. You suspect nothing and enter your password there - and you gave it yourself.

We talk about known methods of attackers here, be aware:

Use one home page to enter Contact and other sites - this is “ENTRANCE” (address vhod.ru). Set it as your start page (by the way, there is always a button at the top left for this), and you will be protected from many troubles.

Protect yourself from viruses

Tip: make sure there are no viruses on your computer. You must have a working antivirus and be updated regularly. But keep in mind that an antivirus, even a very licensed and updated one, is not a cure for all diseases. Therefore, you should not go to random sites and install anything on your computer. VKontakte itself recommends this antivirus: Cezurity Scanner— open the link and click “Install scanner”.

Do not install dubious programs on your phone

Recently, programs that intercept SMS messages and send them to attackers are increasingly found on the mobile phones of VK users. In this case, your page may be hacked and your phone number may be changed immediately. Your password, even a very complex one, will not protect you. Android phones are especially susceptible to this. Such programs can pretend to be harmless, and you need to be more careful about what you install. If a program requests access to SMS messages that is not needed for its operation, you should think about whether it was created by an attacker?

Link the page to a valid phone number

Don’t be lazy to link your VKontakte page to your current mobile phone number. This is done on the VK website in the settings (see here - where the settings are located in VK). You will receive an SMS with a code that you will need to enter on the website. After this, you will always have the opportunity to easily restore access if you forget your password or if bad people find out about it.

If you change your number, be sure to go to the settings again and link the page to the new number.

How to behave safely on VK?

Take care of personal information

Never send candid photos, video, do not conduct personal correspondence with people you do not know personally. If someone meets you on VK and asks you to send something similar, this is not the pretty girl in the photo (or young man), but a scammer. He will then blackmail you by threatening to send your personal information to all your friends unless you pay the money.

Do not follow suspicious links, including those from friends

When you are sent a link, do not rush to click on it. Did you ask for it to be sent to you? Even if the link came from a friend, it may turn out that his page has been hacked, and these links are now being sent to everyone. If you click, your password will be stolen.

Often, from hacked pages, as if from friends, a request comes to vote via a link - by clicking on such a link, the victim enters his username and password, giving them to strangers, and then he can only blame himself:

How to change the password in VK?

Very simple. We have good instructions on this topic: How to change the VKontakte password.

What should I do to prevent the page from being blocked (frozen)?

Be wary of offers to perform various “tasks” for which money or votes are given. If the point of the task is to join a certain group, you may be blocked along with everyone else who has done the same thing. VKontakte is struggling with cheating, so don’t be surprised when this happens to you.

Something happened to Contact, I can’t log in, what should I do?

This situation occurs very often, the reasons may be different. Make sure you enter the password correctly. Don’t insist that everything is correct - take a deep breath and think: maybe you are entering Russian letters instead of English ones? Then switch your language. Maybe capital letters instead of small ones? Then turn off the Caps Lock button. If the password doesn’t work, no matter what options you try, see how to recover your VKontakte password.

If you still can’t log into Contact, and it doesn’t seem to be a password issue, read the article Can’t log into Contact - what to do? — it contains the main causes of such trouble and how to deal with them.

The “Site Login” start page is another contribution to security

To log into Contact safely and not fall for the tricks of scammers who lure people to fake sites, always use the “LOGIN” start page to log into Contact. Set it as your start page and use it every time.

Go to home page to log into VK.

In 2014, the social network VKontakte introduced two-factor authentication. What is this? This is an additional security feature - in addition to authorization using a login and password, you must enter a code that will be sent to the phone number associated with your account. Even if an attacker has data from your page, he will not be able to get into it.

How to activate two-factor authentication?

Click “My Settings” and select the “Security” tab. Here you will see the subsection “Login Confirmation” and the inscription: “Provides reliable protection from hacking: to enter the page you must enter a one-time code received via SMS or other connected method.” Click on the “Connect” button.

A window will appear that describes some situations. For example, if two-factor authentication is enabled, then password recovery by number becomes unavailable and the administration strongly recommends linking a current email address to the page. If you are satisfied with everything, click on the “Proceed with setup” button.

Enter the password for the page.

Enter the confirmation code and click “Send code”.

The function is enabled. Place a checkmark next to “Remember current browser” so as not to enter the code on this computer every time, then click on the “Finish setup” button.

How to disable two-factor authentication?

Still in the same “Security” section, click on the “Disable login confirmation” button.

Enter the password for the page.

We have already talked about hacking a VKontakte page (see). Attackers can find out your login and guess your password (see). And then they will be able to visit your page.

To prevent this from happening, VKontakte introduced an additional security measure - double authorization (two-factor). The meaning of this function is that after entering , you also need to indicate the secret code received via SMS or other means. Thus, the likelihood of hacking is reduced significantly. Even if attackers know your credentials, they won't have the code to log into the page.

Now I'll show you how to activate double authorization on VKontakte and set up an application for generating codes.

How to enable two-factor authentication on VKontakte?

Go to your page and go to the “Settings” section.

Open the “Security” tab. Here in the section "Login confirmation", click the “Connect” button.

A form will open - click the button in it "Start setting up".

You will be asked to re-enter the password for the page (see). Do this and click the "Confirm" button.

Receive the code on your phone and enter it in the form. Then click the "Submit Code" button.

Setting up an application for generating codes

The next step is setting up the application to generate codes. You are offered to install an application that will allow you to generate login codes, even without connecting to a cellular network.

Use Google Authenticator for iPhone and Android smartphones. AND Authenticator- for phones in Windows Phone. Install the appropriate application on your gadget.

This is what the window with the QR code looks like, and secret code in VK.

Now run installed application, and scan the specified code.

Now paste the received code from the application, and click the “Confirm” button.

The code generation application has been successfully configured!