There are millions of online accounts or all kinds in existence in cyberspace and criminals make it their business to trawl as many of them as they possibly can for any information they can use. As a result, hackers are working around the clock to break into email, social media and banking accounts, among others.

Steps to Take After a Hack

There is a strong chance that you may never be targeted, simply because of the massive numbers involved. On the other hand, the day may come when you will wake up to find that one or more of your accounts got hacked. Here’s what Software Dev advises you to do in this eventuality.

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1. Take Stock of What Might Have Been Accessed

Try to remain calm and carefully go through your account to see what hackers might have had access to. If it’s your email account, they would now have access to your mailing lists, but they may also have found sensitive information among your received and sent mails. You need to know what has been leaked in order to plug the hole effectively.

2. Change All Your Passwords

Once you have assessed the damage, you need to take appropriate action. The first thing to do is to change your passwords – and we mean all of them. While it may only be the one account that has been hacked into, the chance remains that others have been breached too. It’s also possible that the hackers can use information found one account to break into some of your others. So change the locks to all of them. If you haven’t already done so, you may want to invest in a password management programme that you can use to beef up security across all your accounts. You could also set up two-factor authentication to make access more difficult.

You should also de-authorise all apps linked to the hacked accounts. They should all enable you to reset your passwords and revise your security settings so that you can access them again.

3. Inform All Relevant Parties

If your social media or email accounts have been hacked, your friends and professional colleagues may find themselves being contacted by someone claiming to be you. Pre-empt that by letting them all know about the security breach and that they should keep their eyes open for any strange communications appearing to come from you. Inform your bank as well, change all access codes for your bank accounts and keep a close eye on your statements.

4. Scan Your Computer(s)

There is a possibility that malware or spyware has found its way into your system and that is how cybercriminals found their way into your account. If you don’t already have good antivirus software, invest in it now and then run a full scan on your system, rooting out any bugs that may possibly be making your computer vulnerable. Also, check that your firewall is up and running.

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Software Dev is Fanatical About Cyber Security

All of these measures will also help to lower the chances of a hack taking place again. Be sure to watch all your accounts and run those scans regularly to ensure your system stays secure. Get in touch with us today to discuss how we can ensure that your digital assets are secure and stay tuned to our blog for more actionable insight.