Hi All,
Along with the increase in online scams, there has recently been large data breach of over 700 million email address and passwords released on the internet.
To check if you’ve been affected test both work and private email addresses here (and I recommend subscribing to their free notification service for future breaches):
It is highly recommend that everyone test their email (work and private) here to see if your credentials have been compromised (a very high likely it will have your details due to the large number of compromised accounts) and which is why you should never use the same password across multiple sites.
What to do if you find you’re listed in the breached database???
If its listed in the online database then it means any online account you have with these credentials (not just the site listed) is vulnerable to unauthorised access and identity theft. I would suggest that you reset all online account passwords at once I also recommend you immediately enable and use 2 factor authentication on any account that can use it (almost all social media and banking sites now support some form of 2 factor authentication) and to use different passwords on different sites – especial banking, if every your credentials are compromised and your email and your password is, the use of 2-factor will add an additional level of security that will prevent access to you accounts/private data
A good practice in creating strong passwords that are easy to remember is to use pass phrases as opposed to passwords and are easily remember, e.g. "I always go down to the shops at 5” and then remove, or leave, spaces depending on the site requirements. By using pass phrases you will be much more secure and in conjunction with 2 factor authentication will be almost impossible to compromise through brute force.
If you can’t remember passwords, use a free password safe like keypass https://keepass.info that will also generate passwords for you. Just don’t use an online password safe for the obvious reasons. You can even get them to use on your smart phone, so no excuses!
Here is one of the stories for reference: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/30/spambot-leaks-700m-email-addresses-huge-data-breach-passwords
Online is not a safe place for your data and it is up to you to protect it! Done be complacent with your passwords as it may become very expensive in time and money for you if someone obtains your online identity.
Cheers,
Mamun
