What to Do If You are Hacked: 10 Tips For a Victim | Free Antivirus

So, you've been hacked. It doesn't matter how - perhaps you caught a virus or scammers tricked you in to your login and password. Or you don’t understand at all what happened, but you see that someone is fumbling in your mail or social network account. Even if this is not the first time with you, you most likely panic and do not know what to do now. Welcome to the People Who Hacked Club, which recently featured a Wired journalist. After coping with stress, he first wrote a step- by -step action guide for victims of cyber intruders.

Why Me?!

Since such booze has gone, look back and try to figure out how this could happen to you and why. When it comes to your bank account, the answer is obvious. In all other cases - email, Facebook account, etc. - the reasons can be very different, ranging from sending spam and extortion, ending with gaining access to financial services, which you register with via email or social network. It is also possible that a scammer is trying to gain access to your business. Understanding what you were hacked for often helps you realize where you went wrong in making the hack possible.

Change Passwords

Immediately change passwords for all vulnerable services, as well as the services associated with them, and those with the same password. And never use the old password again. In an amicable way, passwords should be changed every six months - this is an important part of your Internet routine. But now you have been hacked, so changing passwords this time you cannot avoid.

And in heaven's name, don't use passwords like qwerty or 123456 ...

Password is the greatest evil. There is no way we can stop this, ”says Mark Jacobsson, head of PayPal's user security department. Sites can enforce password requirements, such as numbers, capital letters, or symbols. But they cannot deny users the same passwords or prevent them from reusing compromised passwords.

Take Care Of Your Health

It is possible that you provided access to your accounts yourself, simply by installing on your computer malware slipped to you under the guise of useful software or document. You may not be aware that a Trojan has wound up in your machine, so it is better to play it safe and remove all virus threats before starting the recovery process.

First of all, make sure you are using the most recent version of your operating system. Install a good antivirus and run the process of scanning all storage media for threats. And it's better if it is a well-known antivirus program that you are not greedy to pay for.

When it comes to payment accounts, the reasons for hacking are obvious - scammers want to take over your money. Most often, they connect a debit account to such an account. They will add the address, and then they will request financial tools and will be able to withdraw your money, ”explains Jacobsson.

Perform a Security Audit on all Affected Accounts

Often, one account is simply used as a gateway to access another. For example, your Dropbox might be a loophole to something that's stored there. Likewise, email can become a pass to your online banking. So you need to check and protect not only those accounts that have been hacked but also everyone else because they can also become vulnerable. Change their passwords and treat them as if they were compromised too.

Uninstall From all Apps

This is one of the subtle but important steps. The first step after your account has been hacked is to log out of all applications associated with it. For example, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Dropbox, and many others support OAuth,  an open authorization protocol that allows you to provide a third party with limited access to a user's protected resources without having to transfer your username and password to the third party.

already infiltrated the application, simply exiting or changing the password cannot be eradicated from there. Moreover, you will not be able to find out whether it happened or not. Therefore, the only way to protect your services from intrusion is to let them go. Google, Facebook, and Twitter have special "de-authorization" mechanics. Of course, this is painful, but it is better to overdo it than not to do it.

Protect Your Self

It is bad when your email is stolen, but even worse when your entire identity is stolen as a result. In the United States, you can protect your identity by contacting one of the three major privacy protection agencies. In Ukraine, services like LifeLock will help, which can protect your personal data for free, doing all the work for you.

Report a Hack

In our country, relying on law enforcement agencies in IT matters is at least naive, but it's worth notifying the public. “Report to Facebook that your account has been hacked. You may not lose money, but not only you, but also your friends are in danger, ”says Jacobsson. For example, in London, there was an incident when, through a hacked account, not the victim herself was robbed, but her friends. This is a less common scheme, which, one way or another, has not been canceled. Regardless of whether it is financial information or personal information, you should warn people around you about the possibility of a leak.

But there is another important reason to do this. This article was written for the same reason. Draw attention to the problem. “This is a great opportunity to educate people. When you say, "Oh my God, what happened to him could have happened to me!" “Something is changing at the moment,” says Jacobsson.

The best way to mitigate the consequences of a breach is to prevent the incident itself: use the most modern software, regularly change passwords, and make system backups in case everything goes missing. And if you want to learn more about how to avoid becoming a victim of hacking, re-read our selection of 9 fatal mistakes on the Internet that make you an easy target for hackers. Free antivirus installs it for your device.