Last night I was having a drink with a friend when he received an unsettling email, followed by a text message.

Long story short, my friend's Instagram was hacked and he was locked out of it, the email address and phone number associated with the account were changed, and he spent the whole evening, night and presumably this morning trying to do something about it.

This never happened to be but I know people who went through it and I learnt two things. One, you usually get your account back but two, it takes a long time and it's a stressful situation.

Also, I just so happened to my friend's last DM before the hack, which made it a bit unsettling.

I've got a very simple policy when that happens. I immediately block the account I'm following as soon as I learn the person has lost access to it.

That way, my name and account aren't immediately available to the hacker.

It's not exactly fireproof, but it's a good enough strategy.

I also did something else. First, I temporarily switched my account from business / public to personal and private. Second, I changed my password. Third, I changed my email password. Fourth, I double-checked 2FA was still in place and working.

It was all probably unnecessary, but better safe than sorry.

The thing is, I had to learn these things the hard way.

A few years ago, I lost the equivalent of half a Bitcoin because I was too careless and naive. I had set a simple password for the crypto exchange where the money was, and I had used the same password for the email address linked to it.

It was dumb. Half a Bitcoin was 'only' around $500 back then, but we all know it's now worth $15k.

Still at least the experience taught me a lot.

I'm now paranoid when it comes to my online security. Anything I consider remotely important, up to and including my Facebook account which I never use, is protected by constant password changes and 2FA.

I also regularly check my list of 'logged in devices'. Nothing is 100 percent safe but this is close enough.

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't do that. And when they do, it's usually for the reason I do: they got stung, badly, and they learnt their lesson.

But it shouldn't be like that. It shouldn't take losing your Insta or half a Bitcoin to learn that online security is important.

These things should be taught in school.

Every single fcuking thing we do is online these days. Literally everything.

So we're dramatically exposed to these dangers and yet we act like it's nothing.

And when you try and talk some sense into people, you sometimes hear the dumbest answer ever: "I don't have anything to hide".

Really? So what they're saying it's okay if the private DM you sent your colleague that reads "I fcuking hate our boss, I wanna punch him" becomes public knowledge.

They're saying it's fine if the dirty chat you had with that one girl / guy time is leaked.

They're saying it's fine if the message that reads "hey I left the home keys under the doormat" is released.

These are random examples, and they obviously don't apply to everyone and anyone in the same way.

But you get the gist.

Please be careful. This is serious. And we aren't taking it seriously enough.