USA TODAY International Edition
Hacks flag your password breaches
Facebook and LinkedIn ( which says the latest incident was a “scrape,” not a “breach”) are just two of dozens of recent examples of our precious passwords falling into the wrong hands.
It’s a scary digital world we live in, but many valuable tools can make it safer for you. Here’s how to find out whether hackers have your password – and how to fix it right away.
The most popular of hack- finding tools is Have I Been Pwned. It’s a website that tracks and catalogs high- and low- profile data breaches. You can search the site’s database using your email address or phone number. If the site links your login with a known breach, it tells you which company was hit, and what kind of information hackers might have.
HaveIBeenPwned is an excellent tool if you want to dive into past data breaches to see if your information is floating around out there. It also points you toward a password manager. But other services offer a more proactive approach to tracking hacked information, including notifications whenever your personal info pops up in a new leak, or they check sites for weaknesses before they cause a problem for you. Here are my favorites. h BreachAlarm: You can use BreachAlarm in the same way you use HaveIBeenPwned. It’s easy to search the site’s database to find past hacks and leaks that might include your personal info. But if you want to take things to the next level, the $ 30 annual subscription will scan new hacks whenever they pop up and alert you if your data appears. This gives you a head start in changing your passwords or closing your accounts on sites that may put your identity or finances at risk.
h Sucuri: Sucuri is a site that performs active scans on websites to search for vulnerabilities that hackers might exploit. If a place you love shows up as being risky, it’s wise to routinely change your password there, or at the very least use a password you don’t use anywhere else. ( This should be a rule for all sites, but it’s easy to forget). There’s a browser extension that makes the process even easier.
h Google Chrome: Google just added its own password scanner right into the most popular web browser on the planet. Google Chrome can alert you if it finds that your passwords were likely included in a breach or hack. You may not have noticed this new advanced feature, but it’s easy to use.
If you’re logged in to Chrome, click on your photo in the upper right- hand corner of the page, then click on the little key icon. That takes you to your “settings.” You also can get there by typing in chrome:// settings/ passwords. See it? Now tap “Passwords.”
On the passwords page, click “Check passwords” and then “Check now.” The built- in tool will tell you if any of your passwords have security problems. If they do, you’ll be prompted to change them, and a link will direct you to the site to make the password update easy.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.