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What to do if your password has been compromised?

12 August 2022

The dreaded day has come. You have been notified, or believe that, your beloved and much used password has been compromised. 

Is your password compromised

Immediately, you think back on all those times that you should’ve listened to everyone that warned you against doing exactly what you’ve done. You curse yourself, knowing that it wouldn’t have happened if you’d simply not used the same password for absolutely everything. 

[insert said password] never let you down before. It was so memorable. You thought you’d picked a good one; convinced yourself that the hackers would never guess it. Well, until today.

“53% of people rely on memory to manage their passwords” 

“51% use the same passwords for both work and personal accounts” 

“The password ‘123456’ is still used by 23 million accounts” 

 

(Source - Password statistics) 

“59% use their name or birthdate in a password” 

“43% have shared their password with someone” 

“Almost two-thirds of people use the same password across multiple accounts” 

“MFA blocks 99.9% of all attacks” 
 

(Source - Password statistics) 

 

Do you have a compromised password? How do you know if your passwords compromised or hacked? 

Everyone is vulnerable to the threat of cybercriminals gaining their information. We all like to believe that we’re not susceptible to social engineering, compromised passwords and other types of cyber-attacks, however, even the most intelligent and self-aware people can get caught up in online scams. 

Perhaps you’re just worried your passwords compromised, or you’ve received a notification letting you know that your password has been hacked. Whatever the reason, here are some ways you can tell if your password has been hacked. 

How to find compromised passwords: 

To find out whether your password(s) have been compromised, you can check that search across a multitude of data breaches to see if your email address or phone number has been compromised. When the searches are complete, you’ll be notified which accounts have been compromised. Then you can make sure to change those passwords immediately. For the extra vigilant among us, you can also set up alerts, notifying you of any future hacks. 

 What happens to compromised data after a security breach? 

If your company has a compromised password or been involved in a data breach, the aftermath could prove difficult, especially if important documents or customer information is exposed. 

For individuals, a data breach could result in hackers gaining access to your accounts, viewing your emails, medical records, bank details and more. For worst case scenarios, a hacker could even steal your identity; with this, they could ruin your credit score, steal money or damage your reputation. 

The impact on businesses, if someone in your company’s password has been compromised, can prove catastrophic, from causing malware infiltration to important data being breached and more. 

For businesses, you can hire an IT support company that specialises in cyber security services. As part of this security service, they should offer dark web monitoring alongside their other services. 

With dark web monitoring, this involves gaining threat intelligence about stolen user data associated with your company domains, alerting when a compromise is detected. Then, the team can stop potentially costly and widespread data breaches. 

Follow these steps if your data has been compromised in a security breach: 

  1. Get confirmation of the breach and if your information has been exposed 
  2. Find out what type of data has been stolen 
  3. Change and strengthen online logins and passwords 
  4. Contact the right people/ seek help from an IT company and take immediate action 
  5. Stay alert – monitors your accounts 

What to do if your passwords compromised? Learn how to protect your accounts after a security breach: 

Are you using the same password on multiple accounts? Are your passwords compromised? 

This is a common mistake but it can have a domino effect, on both personal accounts as well as for businesses, allowing hackers to take down multiple accounts by simply cracking one, single password. 

Follow these top tips for creating a secure password and protecting your accounts after a security breach: 

  1. Change ALL your passwords / In their place, create strong, unique, different passwords 
  2. Sign up for two-factor authentication 
  3. Check your bank accounts to see if payment details were included in the breach 
  4. Turn off ‘share my location’ 
  5. Don’t auto-join wi-fi networks 
  6. Use an IT service that monitors the dark web for credential sharing 

Here are 4 of the best password security practices to start implementing in your business: 

  • Make sure passwords are unique to every site 
  • They contain a mix of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols 
  • They don’t contain any personal information, such as anniversaries or birth dates 
  • They don’t include words from a dictionary, in any language – instead, try using a password generator to create strong, unique passwords to protect your accounts and data 

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Has your business fallen victim to a cyber-attack or IT security breach? Let’s get your systems back up and running - contact Bluecube today

At Bluecube we specialise in providing cyber security services to businesses of all sizes across the UK and overseas. Our crisis response team can help get you back up and running, give us a call today on 0845 257 8010, alternatively, you can fill out our online enquiry form, and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible.

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