LeakNixSecurity basics after a breach
What to do when your work address turns up in a known breach or an infostealer log: change the password, turn on two-factor sign-in, check the computer.
Your company watches its work addresses for known breaches and infostealer logs with LeakNix for Business, and an admin asked LeakNix to tell the people concerned. Finding your address there does not mean you did anything wrong. A company you had an account with was breached, or a computer you used ran malware. The steps below close the doors the leaked data could open.
What it means
A breach is data taken from a company's systems and later shared or published. The breach record lists what kind of data it holds, such as email addresses, passwords, names or phone numbers.
An infostealer is malware that copies saved passwords and sign-in sessions from the computer it runs on and sends them to whoever runs it. A log is what it collected from one computer.
Change the password
If a password was part of the data, treat it as known to others, even an old one.
- Change the password of this account, and of every other account where you used the same password.
- Use a different password for every account. A password manager makes that easy to keep.
Turn on two-factor sign-in
With two-factor sign-in, a password alone is not enough to sign in: the account also asks for a code from your phone or a security key.
- Turn on two-factor sign-in wherever it is offered, starting with your work email.
Check the computer
An infostealer log means a computer you used had malware on it.
- Tell IT which computer you use for work and stop using it until it has been checked.
- Sign out of every session on your accounts; most services have a button for it in their security settings.
- If you saved passwords in the browser on that computer, change them all.
Watch for phishing
Names, phone numbers and dates of birth make a fake email or call more convincing.
- Check the sender's address before you click or reply.
- Nobody from IT or a bank asks for your password or a sign-in code by email, chat or phone.