Has my e-mail been compromised?

“Is my email hacked?” Millions of users worldwide ask themselves this question when a cyberattack becomes public knowledge.

Once the hackers are in possession of login data, the damage to those affected can be catastrophic. This overview shows you how to check if your email has been hacked and which websites and tools can help you.

Hackers are now increasingly expert in stealing data and above all passwords to remotely control your smartphone, your email and in stealing data. Alerts are the order of the day and users must always be ready to avoid unpleasant surprises. Trojans that infect our computers/smartphones follow one another at a rapid pace and cybercriminals do everything to ensure that less experienced and more inattentive users fall into their traps.

In this guide I will give you some useful tips to try to protect yourself from possible scams.

How to check if my mail si compromised?

Connect to namescan.com or haveibeenpwned.com to see if your email address or username is comparable in search results. If not, you'll see a box like this:

If it does, don't panic!

There hasn't necessarily been abuse of your account, but I still advise you to immediately change the password for accessing the service or to cancel the corresponding account if it is no longer in use.

• Install a password manager.

The principle is really simple: you generate a password strong and complex enough to meet all your security needs, but you don't need to remember it, because the password manager takes care of it. You can find several on the net.

• Create an overview of your accounts and change your password if necessary.

To generate an overview it can be helpful to write down all login credentials for any account. Don't do it on PC but write them on a sheet. Once you make it clear that you use the same password for multiple accounts, change those credentials. However, changing the password does not consist in expanding it with a progressive number (e.g. password1…2…3) but rather in generating a truly secure one from scratch, perhaps with the help of the password manager mentioned above.

• Adopt Two-factor Authentication where possible.

On some sites we speak of “two-level registration”, confirmation of access or similar. Facebook, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Google, PayPal and other big players offer this option. You can also rely on secure and encrypted mail service, I'll write of this in the next newsletter.

Anyway it is important not to open emails where the sender is unknown or strange, especially if there are attachments such as photos or other, I know curiosity is always one of our dam falls, but you have to delete the email without thinking twice.

Conclusion

Checking if your email adress has been compromised is an essential step towards securing your online accounts and personal information. The two websites mentioned in this newletter are free and easy to use, and they can provide you with valuable information about your adress's integrity and security. However there are many other sites useful for this purpose, some free, some paid, I recommend using the two listed by me.

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