There are Internet services that allow us to know if any of our users accounts, such as email or social networks, have been compromised and therefore we must change the password immediately. Let’s look at an example.
The increasing number of Internet services, among which we highlight social networks or job portals, has given us great joy. In exchange for a price, more and more companies have our data, more or less personal depending on the case. In the same way also, they increased the number of password-stealing attacks, a booming business which we must protect ourselves.
Basic tips for our passwords
The security of our data begins with us. That means for example that we know how to create and use data correctly based access username and password. There are many tips you can find online for it. Recall a few…
– Use complex passwords with letters (uppercase and lowercase) and numbers. You can use mnemonics to remember rules: “There are four cats on the roof” would be an easy phrase to remember that represent our password “H4geet”
– Use password managers whenever possible, small programs that keep our data access encrypted form
– Not use the same password on all platforms Internet. If we steal a password, it will only be affected one of our own and not all
– Not to provide our passwords to anyone
– Not write on paper or on a computer note
– Change them regularly every few months
But get these and other tips mean that we are safe? The answer is no!
Security companies
The growing use of Internet has also led to an increasing number of attacks on companies that do business in it and give us service. We all know the attacks have occurred in recent years against Sony (and its Playstation), Google (Gmail), Linkedin (which recently commented that had stolen millions of accounts), etc. Even Formula 1 is attacked by hackers to steal information.
The reality is that sometimes these companies suffer security breaches and our data are filtered to the network.
This implies that our good behavior is not enough to guarantee our security in the network. We have no choice but to check whether these companies have suffered attacks and regenerate our passwords.
Have I been pwned?
“Pwned” is a word for urban use that comes from the word “owned” which means (among other uses) “dominated.” “Have I Been pwned” (which could be translated as “I’ve been hacked?”), is a website that specializes in providing information on security breaches produced in Internet services.
Its creator is Troy Hunt, a security expert and Regional Director of Microsoft. On the page, apart from being informed about the latest attacks to steal passwords on the Internet, we can use a search engine to enter our username or our email addresses (never a password) and check whether our data has been stolen. The query is performed on the database of the website, which is growing thanks to the “donations” that some hackers do when they steal data or when found hanging on the network by someone else.