Today, we’ll be sharing a nifty tool that recently came to our attention. It identifies if your email address or telephone number (and potentially other personal data linked to them) have been or currently are exposed. What do we mean by ‘exposed’? By exposed, we mean your data is publicly available to people like hackers or unscrupulous companies. Your details would have most likely been exposed via a data breach on a company where you had or have an account (login details).
Have I Been Pwned (HIBP)
HIBP checks pastebin, forums and other websites where passwords, emails and other personal/sensitive data are commonly shared.
We highly recommend you check out their website. All you need to do is enter your email address or telephone number and you can see if your details have been exposed in a data breach, then subsequently been made available publicly, online.
What to do if your details are exposed?
The solution is to reset your password. Immediately. Choose a strong password e.g. three or more words joined together or a random string of numbers, letters and special characters. A minimum of 12 characters should do it. You can use a password generator like this one here.
Use a password keychain/wallet
We won’t discuss in detail password keychains/wallets, we recommend you speak with an IT security specialist. But that said, keychains or wallets, when used correctly, are generally considered safe and a good option for managing multiple accounts & passwords. Further reading on keychains here.
We hope you found this useful!
