What to Do If Your Online Account Is Compromised

What to Do If Your Online Account Is Compromised

Were you one of the 100 million people affected by the Capital One hack ?

If so, or if you are compromised in the future, here are the appropriate actions to take in order to re-secure your account.

 

The most recent hack of the credit card company Capital One is just

another example of why we have to be diligent in changing our passwords

and protecting our data.

Once the criminals have your credentials they can then use software to scan for websites in which the stolen credentials work. In this case, they got away with the credentials of over 100 million users.

Due to the fact that hacked networks are so prevalent in today’s society and that we do not hear about most of them, it is a safe bet that one of your online accounts will be compromised at some point, if not already.

To better protect your sensitive data Vintage IT Services highly recommends implementing two-factor authentication along with frequent password changes. We can assist in setting up two-factor authentication in the case you are interested.

However, if you were hacked this time around there are a few steps you need to take to ensure they can not get back into your account.

  1. Change the password

  2. Change the password recovery question/answer(s)

  3. Verify the recovery/secondary email is still yours.

  4. Repeat this process on all of your online accounts that share these credentials.

  5. Never use those questions or password again

Once these steps are completed, assuming the company who was hacked has made the adjustments necessary to protect their network, your account will once again be secure!