How to Keep Track of Website Data Breaches and Check if you Got Pwned ?

In this article we will discuss how you can protect yourself online, and check if any of your online account has been compromised or pwned and been a part of online data breach.

This is your host Navjot Virk with over 9 years experience in the Internet and Technology industry.

With continued popularity of Internet and opportunities it presents, Internet attracts people from all walks of life, most are there to contribute and help others but a small minority is on the opposite side to hurt people.

Data Breaches are not uncommon these days, even the biggest of companies like Yahoo have been comprised in the past.

Online security is paramount

These are the couple steps you can take to check if you have been pwned (or breached where your data is floating on dangerous site on the internet).

Use a Data Breach Monitor

There are couple brilliant and free tools that exist you can use to check for breaches and the best part is if you are using one the next time any of your account is compromised the tool will send you an email.

Firefox Monitor by Mozilla

Monitor.firefox.com – Monitor is one of the credible tools available out there from a trustworthy non-profit foundation – Mozilla which is the same company that offers Firefox Browser.

Just pop in your email and Monitor will show you all the data breaches where your email account was found.

For example: My email showed up for 10 websites.

Firefox Monitor - You can track if your account was hacked or security was compromised protecting yourself online

Have I been pwned?

HaveIBeenPwned.com is another great tool for checking data breaches.

Have I been pwned

When you receive an email that says your account was breached for a website you should act quickly and reset your passwords and safeguard your payment methods if you have any connected to an account that got pwned.

Reset your passwords

Make sure the same credentials (email and password) is’t used for other accounts, if it is make sure to quickly reset passwords for all your other accounts.

Its usually best to have different passwords for different accounts, but sometimes we do end up with same passwords on all sites since managing too many passwords can sometimes be hard, in that case use a password manager.

Enable 2 factor Authentication

To further improve your account security you can setup 2 factor authentication for accounts that support it (like gmail), just be aware this will require you to have your mobile close to you every-time you want to login into an account. Here is an article from Verge that goes over enabling 2 factor authentication.

Safeguard your Payment Methods

If any of the website that you have payment details (like debit/credit card) saved on, gets compromised quickly respond by changing your account password.

Get in touch with your bank to have the card cancelled and order a new one.

Second, check your bank account for any suspicious transactions.

Review your decision to use the breached site or not in future

Review do you really need to use this website that got breached because they don’t seem to have strong security measures in place (make a yes or no choice – if no delete the account, else have the password reset).

Setup a Future Breach Alert

It’s nice to occasionally check these tools, but as you go on with your day to day life. You should automate the process of tracking future breaches, as thats a more practical approach.

Both Firefox Monitor & Have I been Pawned ? provide alert functionality.

You can add your email and set alert then they trigger an alert if one of your accounts for that email get’s breached.

Stay safe. Hope this was helpful.

Thanks

Navjot Virk

Disclosure: None of the links in the article are affiliated or sponsored, these are just tools that I use and am sharing my experience.

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Navjot Singh Virk
Navjot is a Hobby Blogger from Ireland and loves to create content to help people. He makes time on weekends to work on this blog. And has a full time position at Workday as Technical Product Manager, which he loves and thrives at. His Skills include in-depth knowledge of SEO, Javascript, Advertising, HTML, Java and Product Management. And his other hobbies include Investing, Gardening and playing Table Tennis.