How to find out if your email has been hacked (and fix it)

Troy Hunt, an American developer specializing in computer security, has created two very useful websites for all users: the first reveals whether you have been attacked by hackers, the second helps you choose a strong password

Today, between mail Y Social, The attacks hacker User data is now a reality close to users, who are often unaware of the risks and pitfalls that lurk on the web. Being attacked and putting your data at risk is not that difficult. Simply subscribe to an insecure mailing list, click on a dangerous banner, open an email from an unknown address, or even simply by setting a password that is too easy to guess (1234 or 0000, just to give trivial examples).

In most cases, hacked emails end up for sale in the Dark Web, with our data becoming a bargaining chip for Internet smugglers. A phenomenon revealed by Troy Hunt, American cybersecurity expert, who recently denounced the alleged case Collection # 1– A gigantic repository of illegal emails, passwords and personal data, 773 million hacked addresses for a total weight of 87 GB. Fortunately, thanks to a site created by Hunt, you can quickly check if your email address is involved in the recent attack or has been in the past.

How to know if email has been hacked

So how does an average user find out if their email address has been attacked by a hacker? The procedure is very simple and is available to everyone, even to users less familiar with computers. Just log in to the site ‘They have cheated me?’

and enter the email you want to verify in the corresponding bar. What happens next? In case of light green (as in the example below) you can be sure that your email address is safe.

On the other hand, in the case of light Red, no good news: it means that the box has been hacked, and the site also indicates how many times and where your virtual identity has been put up for sale.

Hacked mail? How to fix it

In the event that an email is hacked, what can you do to run for coverage? The first tip is to set one up immediately new key for the compromised address taking care to enter special characters, numbers, and two-factor authentication.

If, on the other hand, you are not sure of the code you are setting up and want more certainty about the security of the new password, there is another site, also developed by Troy Hunt, that allows you to check if the secret word has been stolen. in the past. Operation of ‘Pwned passwords’ it is identical to the one on the site to check the status of your email: just enter the password in the corresponding band and wait for the result of the analysis.