01/09/2017

My email address got pwned, what to do?

First of all, are you sure your account has been breached or compromised in any way?

To make sure, check your email address here: https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Now, in the unfortunate event that your email is on the list, well, you're not alone.

I read an article recently on the latest data breach. You can click on it for techy details and how to protect yourselves using password managers and all that fancy stuff.

However, if you don't trust password managers (which is crazy, but your right to) there are a few other things you can do.

I have to clarify I'm not knowledgeable on such matters (security breaches, hacking or whatever), but I possess reason and common sense.

So here follows a small list of steps you can take to protect yourself online:

  1. Never use your real name on social media, pornsites and generally anything non work or online shopping or serious stuff related
  2. Use a different email address to sign up on social media, a different one for pornsites, a different one for online shopping (and if possible a different one for work related stuff, medical and financial stuff etc.)
  3. Never use your real name on email addresses you use for social media, fora, pornsites etc.
  4. Never use the same password on different email accounts or any accounts in general 
  5. Try to always create strong passwords (including capital letters, numbers and symbols -avoid using your name, date of birth etc.)
  6. Never click on emails from untrusted sources
  7. Never click on links from untrusted sources 

I understand most of us are lazy af when it comes to those things, so if you have two email addresses, one using your real name, which you use for serious stuff and a fake one for everything else, you should be fine as long as you're careful.

Another option is to get an extension like Blur and use masked emails to sign up for non serious stuff. Then you'll still get emails on your main inbox, but they'll be coming through Blur, and none of your real details will be used. 

I hope this helps!

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