Hackers, malware, and other ways to exploit vulnerabilities are constantly evolving. With every development in IT security, a hacker somewhere out there will try and beat it. Hackers have no remorse, they’d target small, medium, and large businesses. Considering the increasing number of cyberattacks or hacks on different businesses yearly, it puts a really strong emphasis on IT security. As a result, you should regularly check if your password has been leaked online.
As a business owner, you want to make sure that you’re ahead of the game. Secure every vulnerability that you find, invest in proper IT security, ask for a security audit for your business, lastly, get a professional to manage your IT systems and security. Do all of these things and you’re less likely to suffer a cyberattack, causing you to potentially lose clients, sales, and more.
Additionally, always bear in mind that it’s a requirement now to report if you get hacked. Otherwise, you may face significant fines. Read more about Australian Privacy laws here. And if ever, you get unfortunately hacked, know the first things you should do by reading one of our articles here.
Companies that suffered data breaches
Just these past few years, several big companies have suffered data breaches because of hacking or poor security practices. Here are a few examples:
- Apple, 2021 – 275,000 records (hacked)
- Twitch, 2021 – leaked code and confidential user earnings data (hacked)
- Instagram, 2020 – 200,000,000 records (poor security)
- TikTok, 2020 – 42,000,000 records (poor security)
- YouTube, 2020 – 4,000,000 records (poor security)
- Facebook, 2019 – 540,000,000 records (poor security)
IT systems security lifehack
Want to know a quick and effective way of knowing your IT system’s issues and vulnerabilities? Want to know how to improve your IT security without doing too much work?
Run Onsite Helper’s Enterprise Level Google Workspace Security Audit today! It aims to identify and address any risks or threats present in your organisation’s IT system. We value data protection and IT security across all devices, whether desktop, laptop, or mobile.
Check if your information or password has been leaked
With the amount of information that is being leaked to the public, your personal information and passwords might be out there without you knowing about it. If you want to know whether or not your information leaked already, you can use these websites and tools.
Have I Been Pwned?
Have I Been Pwned is a searchable data breach database. It is the biggest and most popular way of finding out if your credentials leaked. Troy Hunt, Microsoft regional director, created the database back in December of 2013. It has over 150,000 daily visitors, 3 million email subscribers, and data of over 9 billion compromised accounts.
To check if your password has been leaked, you simply need to enter your email address or mobile number. Within seconds, the website will check whether the information you’ve given has appeared on any data breaches from numerous sources. There’s no risk in using the site because your email or phone number aren’t stored.
DeHashed
DeHashed works the same way as Have I Been Pwned does except that it doesn’t just focus on your email address.
When you visit DeHashed, you’re greeted with a search bar that prompts you to “Search for anything…” and this is true. With DeHashed, you’ll be able to check if your email, username, IP address, name, address, phone number, and VIN has been compromised. On top of that, they also do domain scans.
With that said, it should be noted that DeHashed isn’t entirely free service. Some of the results of your search will be censored unless you avail of one of their subscriptions.
BreachAlarm
Another alternative to Have I Been Pwned is BreachAlarm. You can check if your email has been compromised for free here. However, similar to DeHashed, they also offer paid subscriptions for their protective services.
Sucuri Security Scanner
Sucuri Security Scanner scans your website for any malware and viruses, it detects any security issues that your website might have and checks your website’s blacklist status.
This is a great tool to use if you want to make sure that your website is not blacklisted by website security authorities such as Google. Sucuri Security Scanner is effective in checking your website for any malicious code, security anomalies, configuration issues, and more.
How can you protect your information and passwords?
Have a secure password
To have a secure password, you need to make sure that your password is unique and unpredictable. If you can see your password in this list of Top 100 worst passwords, your IT security is in its worst possible state and you should change your password right now!
Also, it’s important to have a different password for every website or account that you use. This is to make sure that if one account is compromised, your other accounts remain secure.
Google 2-step verification
To add a layer of security to your Google accounts and IT security, make sure that you enable the Google 2-step verification process so that you won’t have to simply rely solely on your password when logging in.
The Google 2-step verification allows you to input other secure information via your mobile phone or other means to make sure that the one that’s trying to access your Google account is you. At the same time, you’ll get notifications about your login attempts. So, when you see a suspicious login attempt, change your password right away.
If your business uses Google Workspace, you’re in luck because Google Workspace offers a lot of security features. If you want to know how to lock down your Google Workspace for really strong security, read here.
Use Google Chrome web browser
When it comes to security audits and password security, Google has been at the forefront of it. Google Chrome’s password checkup feature allows you to immediately check if your password has been compromised. On top of that, even if you don’t save your passwords on your Google Chrome browser, Google will warn you if your password gets stolen.
Use LastPass
LastPass is a password management system that allows you to generate a very secure and random password for your accounts or for every site that you use. You won’t have to worry about remembering highly complicated passwords because LastPass will do it for you. At the same time, similar to Google, LastPass also features a 2-step verification process to reduce the risk of your accounts of logins being compromised.
Have a full IT security audit
Have a team of Onsite Helper professionals closely monitor your entire IT system to be aware of any vulnerabilities, issues, and points of concern that might hinder your organisation in attaining its full productivity.
At the same time, Onsite Helper provides effective solutions and recommendations to mitigate and address the vulnerabilities and improve your overall IT security.
To protect your business’ IT system, contact Onsite Helper or
