Unfortunately, piracy has become commonplace on the Internet. And one of
the biggest blunders you can make if to think that it will only happen
to others, that if you don't do anything, you'll never have a problem.
Unfortunately, it's not so simple. So how can you know if your account
has been hacked?
No, it doesn't only happen to others. It
just takes a spot of bad luck, and suddenly, you're one of the ones if
wasn't supposed to happen to. Everyone (or nearly everyone) is likely to
get hacked at some point. Even big names on the Internet can be hacked,
like Apple and Yahoo. But how can you know if you've been hacked? Let's start with some basic elements:
Check if you've activated maximum security
If
you're unlucky, the service you use may have been hacked, and a thief
would then have access to the service's database. Service managers may
contact you to explain the situation, and if you're on social media,
you'll find out pretty quickly anyway.
If the target is not a
business/service, things depend a little more on yourself. Have you
enabled all security settings? For example, some services use a 2-step
verification system. The odds of being hacked with this feature are
minimized, and even if this were to happen, you would be notified. For
example, Google, Facebook and Dropbox will send you a message to let you
know that someone has tried to access your account from a new device.
Some web services will notify you every time you log into your account from a new device.
Check how safe your password is
Of course, not all
websites offer a wide range of security options. You must therefore
think long and hard on the main element for confidentiality: the
password. If the service is hacked, the quality of your password will
not really make a difference but if you are personally targeted, it
makes sense to pick a safe password.
So how can you tell if your
password is secure enough? You've probably heard left, right and center
that a secure password must have a mix of numbers, letters and sometimes
special characters. The problem is that machines that try to figure out
your password are also aware of this, so by creating a mix of these
characters, you're not necessarily making the account impossible to
hack, you're only making it more difficult because they'll have to test a
greater number of combinations that include numbers and special
characters. Bill Burr, the creator of the secured password standards, explained the problem. In
short, he says to make sure you get creative with your password and
make sure it's not just a single word with characters at the start or
end. If your password is "Password31", you should probably consider
making it a bit more complicated.
A password is a virtual key that opens the door to your account.
These two tips can give you an
idea of the situation of your account's security but they can't tell
you if you've been hacked. So how can you be sure?
Look at the symptoms
In
theory, your account may have been hacked without you even realizing
it. In practice, it's less obvious because if someone has bothered to
get hold of your account details, they probably plan to do something
with it. Either they'll use your account directly, for example
change your password, purchase things from your account or
send spoof mail to your contacts, or they'll use it indirectly to scrape
other information they find in your account. Thus, they can use/sell
your personal data, etc.
Data can be exploited for a profit.
Check online if you have been hacked
If piracy is
done on a large scale, you can check whether you were hacked or not. A
security expert has created a list of all the victims after every known
attack, and allows users to check if their account was hacked. The
website is called Have I been pwned? You just have to type in your email address, and the website will tell you whether or not someone knows your password.
You
can also type your password and the website tells you if it has been
compromised. In both cases, the database is huge (over 300 million
passwords) since it gathers hacked accounts from LinkedIn, VK, MySpace,
Badoo, Dropbox and many more.
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