Millions of email addresses and passwords have been hacked throughout the world, and South Africa is no different. In fact, over 1.3 million local email addresses and passwords have been leaked and are available online for hackers and cyber criminals to use at will.
Yours could be among them!
Hackers are continually scouring the net looking for ways of gaining access to your accounts. So, you need to be very alert in how you handle your secret passwords and login details to websites and apps.
Most computer users make the mistake of using the same username and password for many different websites and apps. We do this because it is easier for us to remember our password and we don’t have to go to the trouble of looking it up every time we want to log into our favourite social media account, online shop or news channel.
This presents a huge opportunity for a hacker. If he can gain access to your username and password on a low security website, he knows there is a good chance that the same username and password has been used for your banking, investments, online shopping and social media accounts. This could result in a lot of trouble for you.
In fact, your email address and password may well be listed on the internet right now, just waiting for someone to gain access to your accounts. You can check this by clicking the button below. This will take you to a website where you can look up your email address and see if it has been compromised.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK IF YOU HAVE BEEN HACKED
What do you do if your email address is listed?
Immediately, go to the different websites where you use your email address as your username. Then change your password.
Going forward, make sure you never use the same password over and over. Choose a different password for each of your logins even though this may be inconvenient for you. It is a lot less inconvenient than a hacker gaining access to your private accounts.
It is also a good idea to make it a habit to change your passwords on a regular basis.
Don’t get caught by cyber criminals, take action now and protect yourself!
Not sure how to do this?
If you are not sure how this applies to your unique circumstances or how to get started, please contact us and we will be happy to share some further thoughts with you.