ON THE SUBJECT OF COMPUTER HACKING

I think we tend to overuse the word “hacked” , and need to clarify its meaning..
It is relatively easy to clone someone’s list of Facebook friends and send them fake friend requests without actually accessing their account, which would be hacking.

This is what is usually happening if you get a friend request from someone who is already a friend.

You can usually tell when you respond to the request, and the person starts a dumb conversation resulting in some kind of a scam probably about some “great ” deal.

And it is easy for your personal information to be abused if you put yourself out there on social media.
But an actual “hack” is a different matter.
That means your security has been bypassed , exposing your personal info – financial, etc.- not meant to be public .
The usual way of hacking is to plant software on your computer , either via download , messaging or e-mail that bypasses your computer’s security to achieve some nefarious end.
When that happens , you’re usually in trouble.
But that is quite different from you voluntarily giving out information due to scams or “phishing”,
Basic security like a strong and unusual password will do the trick in most cases, except against extremely skilled and sophisticated attacks against your system.
I’m always amused by people who are reluctant to do online banking for security reasons , when the vulnerable area is more likely to be the financial institution which is more likely to be hacked , since you have the ability to control your security at your end.