How to Check If Your Accounts Have Been Hacked

Every few weeks brings another report of email and other personal account information being stolen from a major corporation. Last month a massive viral botnet was discovered stealing the info of over 2 million accounts from Facebook, Google and Yahoo. And the month before that, the details of a whopping 152 million accounts were stolen from Adobe. This may leave you wondering if one of your many accounts across the internet has been exposed, but how do you tell?

There are a slew of sites out there that consolidate the publicly available details from all the major hacks and let you search to see if your email is among them. Some are more useful than others, and some may simply be fronts for email harvesting services, so you need to be careful which you use. Open in your browser www.haveibeenpwned.com, tells you whether your information has been stolen, where the hack occurred and which of your personal details were compromised (e.g., user name, password, password hints, etc.).

So what do you do when you find one of your accounts has been compromised? It’s time to create a new password and I don’t mean your birthday, pet’s name or the word “password.” You need your password to be smart, but not so complex you forget it.

Try for at least 8 characters (the longer the better), with a mixture of upper and lower-case letters, numbers and, if the site or service allows, special characters, such as “!,” “#” and “?.” It should be something you can remember easily. A long sentence works well when you take the first letter of each word and then substitute the vowels for numbers or symbols.

For example: The quick brown fox jumped inside the orange box and slept = Tqbfj1t0b&s

We also recommend creating a different password for every site and using a password manager program to keep track of them all. There are both browser password managers and app-based services.

And remember that when it comes to setting up new passwords, it’s smart to lie when filling out password security questions. Most of the questions have answers that can be easily discovered by basic Google searches about you.

You can never be too careful with your privacy on the Internet. For further steps you can take, check out our 11 Simple Ways To Protect Your Privacy.

Safe Wireless Networking in Public Spaces

Accessing the internet via a public wireless access point involves serious security threats you should guard against. These threats are compounded by your inability to control the security setup of the wireless network. What’s more, you’re often in range of numerous wireless-enabled computers operated by people you don’t know. The following sections describe steps you can take to protect yourself.

Watch What You Do Online
Because you’re likely to have an unsecured, unencrypted network connection when you use a public wireless access point, be careful about what you do online there’s always the chance that another user on the network could be monitoring your activity. If you can’t connect securely using a VPN then consider avoiding.

• Online banking 
• Online shopping 
• Sending email 
• Typing passwords or credit card numbers 

Connect Using a VPN
Many companies and organizations have a virtual private network (VPN). VPNs allow employees to connect securely to their network when away from the office. VPNs encrypt connections at the sending and receiving ends, and keep out traffic that is not properly encrypted. If a VPN is available to you, make sure you log onto it any time you need to use a public wireless access point.

Disable File Sharing
File sharing in public wireless spaces is even more dangerous than it is on your home wireless network. To prevent attackers from gaining access to your sensitive files, you should disable file sharing when connecting to a public wireless access point. Check the help file from your operating system to learn how to disable file sharing.

Be Aware of Your Surroundings

• When using a public wireless access point, you should be aware of what’s going on around you. 
• Are others using their computers in close proximity to you? 
• Can others view your screen? 
• Are you sitting near a window through which someone, using binoculars, could get a view of your screen?

If any of these conditions exist, your sensitive data might be at risk. Consider whether it is essential to connect to the internet. If an internet connection is not essential, disable wireless networking altogether.

Recover your PC from virus attack

Once you know that your machine is infected with a Trojan Horse or virus (or if your machine is exhibiting unexpected behavior and you suspect that something is wrong), then you need to perform certain tasks.
If you know what specific malicious program has infected your computer, you can visit one of several anti-virus web sites and download a removal tool.

Disconnect your computer from the Internet
Depending on what type of Trojan horse or virus you have, intruders may have access to your personal information and may even be using your computer to attack other computers. You can stop this activity by turning off your Internet connection. The best way to accomplish this is to physically disconnect your cable or phone line, but you can also simply “disable” your network connection.

Back up your important files
At this point it is a good idea to take the time to back up your files. If possible, compile all of your photos, documents, Internet favorites, etc., and burn them onto a CD or DVD or save them to some other external storage device. It is vital to note that these files cannot be trusted since they are still potentially infected.

Scan your machine
Since your computer (including its operating system) may be infected with a virus, it is safest to scan the machine from a live CD (or “rescue” CD) rather than a previously installed antivirus program. Many antivirus products provide this functionality. Another alternative is to use a web-based virus removal service, which some antivirus software vendors offer free virus scan.

Reinstall your operating system
If the previous step failed to clean your computer, the most effective option is to wipe or format the hard drive and reinstall the operating system. Although this corrective action will also result in the loss of all your programs and files, it is the only way to ensure your computer is free from backdoors and intruder modifications.
Many computer vendors also offer a rescue partition or disc(s) that will do a factory restore of the system. Check your computer’s user manual to find out whether one of these is provided and how to run it.

Restore your files
If you made a backup your files, now you can now restore your files. Before placing the files back in directories on your computer, you should scan them with your anti-virus software to check them for known viruses.

Protect your computer
To prevent future infections, you should take the following precautions:

• Do not open unsolicited attachments in email messages. 
• Do not follow unsolicited links. 
• Maintain updated anti-virus software. 
• Use Internet firewall software. 
• Secure your web browser. 
• Keep your system patched on daily basis.