#password security

Like the recently reported breach, compromised email addresses and passwords that are possibly used for work, social media accounts, and financial services, are left open to be used by cybercriminals. A data breach, by definition, "is a security incident in which sensitive, protected or confidential data is copied, transmitted, viewed, stolen or used by an individual unauthorized to do so." Data like your email addresses and passwords should not be exposed or released to the public or to any entity that can't be trusted. One big example is the recent data breach that exposes over 772 million email addresses and over 21 million passwords. If you're using a single email address and password for all these accounts and happened to get exposed, then the attacker can simply change your password (assuming you don't have 2FA activated), lock you out, access all your data, and use it for other malicious activities. One way of checking if your accounts are compromised is by using haveibeenpwned.com by security researcher Troy Hunt. The site allows you to separately check if your email address or password has appeared in data breaches. If your email address or password were identified as pwned, then it's time to take action right away, and the first step is to change your passwords. Read more in our articles including "Infographic: What is 2FA?" and "What to do if your accounts have been compromised".