Quick Links
Data leaks pose an immense risk to your personal and financial well-being, but you may mitigate potential harm by responding immediately and safeguarding your data.
It’s not always easy to figure out if you’re the victim of a data breach, but there are some quick ways you can check for a data leak.
1. Google Your Email Address
The simplest method of checking for data leaks involves Googling your email address. Enclosing your email address in quotes when you Google it will ensure thatonlyexact matches are returned. If your email appears on the web, you can investigate and potentiallyrequest that your personal information be taken down.
2. Activate Google Dark Web Monitoring
Unfortunately, not all pages are indexed by Google—and the malicious corners of the internet where stolen data is traded and shared are seldom among those pages. you’re able to use the free version ofGoogle’s Dark Web Reporttool to see if your personal information has appeared on websites not indexed publicly on Google.
Now,whether dark web monitoring worksis another question entirely, but given it’s a free service, why not try it out?
3. Check for Email and Password Leaks
While Google’s Dark Web Report tool is effective, it doesn’t detect all data leaks. You can build a comprehensive picture of how your personal information might be at risk by checking whether your email address or password has appeared in a data breach onHaveIBeenPwned.
4. Use a Password Manager
Once you’ve checked your passwords, it’s time to start using a password manager. If one of your passwords appears on the dark web with your phone number or email address, hackers will attempt to use that combination to log in to hundreds of websites. If you’ve reused that password, you might lose several accounts.
It’s vital to track your passwords, particularly when accessing sensitive websites. Your bank account or insurance account is less likely to be cracked if you use a unique password. Remember to change your passwords if you suspect you’ve been hacked.
5. Keep Track of Login Activity
Beyond protecting your accounts, you can mitigate the potential harm of a breach by monitoring your login activity. You can alsoset up login security warning alerts through Gmail, as well as as well as socia networks and many other sites.
Ideally, you should attempt to log in from a new device on a different Wi-Fi network (such as your phone’s hotspot). If you don’t receive an email or push notification regarding the login attempt after changing your security settings, you will need totweak your email’s spam folder settings.
6. Pay Attention to Your Junk Folders
Even if you manage your spam folder settings effectively, important emails will occasionally get caught up in your junk folder. It’s vital to periodically look through your junk folders to check for any important emails. You can use search terms likein:all “capital one"in Gmail to look for important emails, too.
Don’t overlook an unusual amount of spam during your search since many hackers employ a method called “spam bombing” to conceal their activity.
7. Check Connected Devices
While login security warning alerts will help you respond to new breaches, they won’t address any unauthorized logins that have already occurred. It’s vital to periodically check what devices are connected to your accounts and delete any that you don’t recognize.
You shouldcheck your Wi-FI network for suspicious devicesandremove any sessions that you don’t recognize on your Google account. It’s also worth checking your social media accounts, such as Facebook and Instagram, since hackers might try to find sensitive data (like credit card info) linked to your account.
8. Monitor Card and Bank Account Payments
Since hackers tend to breach social media accounts and emails with the intent of finding sensitive financial information, you can get an idea of whether you’ve been breached by monitoring your card and bank account payments.
You should always immediately contest any transactions or transfers that you know you didn’t make. Catching these fraudulent transactions early on will also give you the opportunity to order a new debit or credit card, change your password, and end any login sessions you don’t recognize.
9. Check for Sudden Credit Score Drops
Hackers often make their theft subtle by using your personal information to open a new credit card, but their activity will always result in an unexpected credit score drop. If you find inquiries you don’t recognize or observe that your credit utilization unexpectedly increased, taking action is vital.
You’ll need to take a few steps torecover from identity theft, including filing a police report and calling your bank. Beyond that, you should also learn more about how credit card fraud occurs and make an effort to avoid behaviors that put your financial information at risk.
