What to do when your account is hacked.
Hi everyone. Leo Notenboom.
Here for askleo.com.
It really does seem like we hear about account hacks all the time.
I know, of course I hear about them all is because I have people coming to me asking
for help, getting their accounts back, or regaining access.
Regardless of what kind of account
that has been hacked, there are some very basic steps that you
need to take as soon as possible after you discover the hack.
I want to go through some of those.
Now, before I go in,
I want to point out that I have two specific articles for specific services.
Facebook hacked.
What you need to do now covers the same topic specifically for Facebook.
You'll find it at askleo.com/7708.
The other one is, my email is hacked.
How do I fix it?
Seven things you need to do now.
That is at askleo.com/5415.
If you're dealing with those two specific
scenarios, either Facebook or your email account, I'll direct you to those articles
and their companion videos for more specific instructions.
Today we're going to talk about what happens when an account gets hacked.
Without being specific about what kind of account it is or what service you might
be using, the very first thing you need to do is recover access to your account.
If you have access to your account, well,
for one thing, be grateful because you've got your account.
You have some things to do and we'll carry you onto the next step.
But the first thing that you need to do if
you don't currently have access to your account is to try and regain access.
The way to do that, of course, is to use what's usually termed a forgot password.
Or I can't log in or having trouble logging in question mark kind of a link
on the services login page, follow whatever instructions are provided
there as carefully and as completely as you can.
I can't emphasize the carefully and completely enough.
What I hear from a number of people is that they will try one thing and then give
up or try one approach and basically get frustrated and walk away.
Typically there are multiple approaches that most of these services will allow you
to take to try and recover access to your account.
They all boil down to proving you are who you say you are.
Usually that's done by sending a text
message to an associated phone number that's yours.
Sending an email message to an associated email account that is supposedly yours.
Your ability to retrieve and provide
the information that was sent to those devices is what allows them to know
that it really is you and that you should be granted access to your account.
The issue then, of course,
is that you end up having to immediately change your password.
Now, I need to be very clear.
If you cannot regain access to your
account using the methods provided by the provider.
It's not your account anymore.
It's now the hacker's account.
There's no way to get your account back beyond the techniques and the tools
provided by the service that's providing you that account.
Now be sure to examine all of the options.
Some of them may have customer support, some of them don't.
Most of the free services do not have customer support.
They do not have a person you can talk to.
They do not even have an email address that you can send a message to.
If you can't regain access to your account, you're done.
You can actually skip the next step
because you'll end up having to create a new account.
Step number two though, if you do have access to your account or
you've regained access to your account, is to immediately change the password.
Remember that if the hacker was able to get in that's because they somehow
managed to get your password, the very first thing you need to do is change it.
Now step number three, and this is where you'll stumble in.
Step number one.
If you can't regain access to your account, it's probably because
this didn't apply, change or set your account recovery information.
You'll see that it's very important
to have this recovery information not just present, but current.
It needs to be something that will somehow reach to you.
If you've changed your phone number and you never bothered to update
the recovery account information, then you've potentially lost your account
because the message that they will send will be to the wrong phone number.
If you no longer have access
to the alternate email address, then they will send that message
to the wrong email address and you won't be able to get at it.
You won't be able to prove you are the owner of the account.
Hackers also know this.
So besides making sure that you have it and have it set up correctly and currently
make sure they didn't change it, make sure that the information for any
form of recovery is current and correct, that it's something in your control.
And step number four learn from the experience.
I know nobody wants to hear this,
especially if they've just lost their account.
But if you've lost your account, it's because probably you didn't have
the account recovery information set up or kept current as you should have.
If that's not working, well, that's something to learn from.
The litany of things to remember
every time includes this using long passwords that can't be guessed.
Using a password vault is one way to make that super easy.
Set and keep all recovery information up to date.
Especially that keep it up to date part.
Don't share your passwords with anyone.
There should never really be a reason to.
Don't fall for phishing attempts.
This is the number one way that accounts get hacked.
Don't click links on emails or other messages that you aren't 100% certain of.
Many phishing attempts will lead you
to links to click on that, then somehow capture your login information.
If you're using WiFi hotspots, learn to use them safely.
I've got an article on that.
Keep the operating system and all of your tools up to date as possible.
I say that because sometimes
the vulnerabilities that are fixed by the various patches that are made
available regularly are the kinds of vulnerabilities that allow hackers
to steal your information, including your passwords.
Learn how to use the Internet safely.
I've got my most important article is about Internet safety.
And finally, consider using two factor authentication.
I realize that many people consider this to be an inconvenience.
Honestly, it's not.
I have it enabled on as many accounts as I possibly can,
and it's really not an inconvenience, especially if you never leave home.
If you travel, there are times where,
yeah, you have to take an extra step to log in.
But that makes sense,
because the device you're using to log in is something you're traveling with.
You could lose it.
You don't want somebody else to be able to log into your account using that device.
Remember, with two factor authentication,
hackers cannot sign into your account even if they know the password.
And finally, if you're not sure about any of this, get help.
Seriously, it's better to ask for help.
There's no shame in asking for help.
It's typically much,
much safer than making bad decisions because you're in a panic.
I hope this helps somewhat.
I hope this helps you get your account back.
For updates or comments,
for related links and more, visit askleo.com/147330 I'm Leo.
Notenboom. This is askleo.com. Thanks for watching.