Technical Tuesday: 5 Steps To Take When You Think You Have Been Hacked.

A long time ago… I was personally hacked. This person got ahold of one of my passwords and he/she used it to access a lot of information. I got mad. Why would someone do this? What did I do that allowed them to gain that information? How could I stop this in the Future?
So, I started reading every data policy I encountered… Hence the extensive knowledge that led to What do our Data Policies really say?

This also made me extremely aware of my bank accounts and transactions and any vulnerable information. Believe me there is a lot out there. In fact, one of the biggest security flaws in our nation is ourselves. We dont think in a security frame of mind. We love to share, and sharing is not a bad thing…We just need to be aware of what we are sharing.

Some simple ways to protect your data is to start with a antivirus software of some type. Reading the blog post in the link above will help to get you familiar with different things that could go wrong with your computer and any security breaches that you may not be aware of.
Also signing up for our newsletter can help to keep you up to date.

But what should you do when you have already been hacked or think that you may have been?

Well, first you want to make sure that your now secure when you go online. To do this run a Full System scan on your computer! Many Antivirus software systems have a Full PC Scan that can be run by the administrator or user.

The next thing you want to do is go to your primary email account…For me that is Google. Change the password and then run a short security check. Google does most of the work here and you can make sure that it’s all correct and safe for you to continue to use.

The third step you want to complete is to run a Password Checkup. Google provides one here.
This is a good thing to run in my opinion because you can never be to careful. Then I prefer to make a list of all the accounts that I have with any type of billing information stored. (If your pretty confident that you can remember what accounts may have that information, then go ahead and move onto step four.)

Step four is the most tedious of all. But what you need to do is to start changing your passwords. This is a timely process but well worth it in the long run. Many people will use common words as passwords. Even going so far as to use “password” itself. The best way I have found to come up with a password that you will remember is to think of a memory that only you place importance on and then a word associated with that memory. This will allow you to not have a pet’s name as bank account password. Another way is to use a password manager, CNET has a great list here.

The fifth and most important thing to do when you notice that a hack has happened is to check ALL OF YOUR ACCOUNTS. This may take you a while. But it’s also a good chance to delete any accounts that you no longer use. (The last time I did this, I realized that I was paying for Funimation and CrunchyRoll to watch the same show.)

We are all so busy in our online lives and our work and personal lives that sometimes we are not focused on what information we are giving away.

Now the final thing that I have in my “prevent me from being hacked without my knowledge tool kit” is this nifty little link from Mozilla Firefox.

Now I am not paid by any companies to advertise for them or to recommend them. These recommendations are straight from me as I use these products myself. I am not affiliated or associated with any of the products or companies that I am using to protect my own information. I do not receive any money or rewards or any other compensation. #notsponsored! I honestly do use these products because I like them and because they work.

I was told about this link from a friend of mine who used to be a hacker, before he became a computer technician. Anyway, Mozilla Firefox has a program that allows them to monitor your email address to see if its been part of a data breach. It’s called Firefox Monitor. You do have to have a Firefox account to use it. But it will monitor your email addresses and send anything it finds to you for you to make sure that you are safe online.

With all the information that we have at our fingertips the best thing possible is for us as users of the internet to know what we are doing and to be aware of the information that we are sharing. Many people are not even aware of what is public information in this country or what a simple google search could find on them. This is something to keep in mind when going forward in our online exploration.

As always Happy Computing and if you have any questions or comments please leave them below. I love to hear from you all. 😊