First make sure you’ve been attacked by a hacker: then get to the facts. What to do if my account has been stolen by a hacker.
Being hacked is scary: suddenly an unknown person has access to online services that we normally use and maybe can read chats or pretend to be us in conversations with friends, acquaintances or co-workers.
The good news is that after suffering a hack all is not lost.
How to figure out if you’ve been hacked
If you suspect you’ve had your account hacked, the first thing to do is check your passwords: have they really been changed or do you just remember them wrong or type them incorrectly? An idea can also be to try logging in with another device.
The “proof” can also be found in your mailbox. It happens that we receive notifications in the form of e-mails about strange access from another computer or another country to our private accounts. An alarm bell should also ring if we receive notification of changed passwords or usernames.
If the suspicion becomes the bitter realization that you have been the target of a hacker’s attack, there is still something you can do: here is how to regain possession of the supposedly hacked accounts.
What to do if one or more accounts have been hacked
Google, Apple, Microsoft are our allies: even if they detect suspicious activities themselves, they will automatically block access to the account for everyone. Alternatively, we can turn to the company in question, to which we must send a request for a car.
With a search such as “report a hack of Gmail” or “what should I do if my Facebook account has been hacked”, for example, you will reach a recovery procedure illustrated step by step. First, make sure that the recovery site is the right one, by looking at the URL: it must be similar to apple.com or google.com, it must contain the company name spelled correctly, it must “look original”.
If you’re lucky, Apple or Facebook will be able to return your account in no time. At this point a good idea is to change the password and activate the two-factor authentication, the one that involves sending an additional temporary access code on the phone.
Maybe it can be useful to know how hackers are spying on us and how to defend yourself from hackers on Zoom.
Giuseppe Giordano