DON’T PANIC
If there’s one thing guaranteed to bring you out in a cold sweat, it’s the thought of being hacked. Over the years we’ve armed you with all the tools you need to protect your PC against viruses, hackers, and other forms of malware, but it’s an ever-evolving battle. These days, most threats are behavioural – they rely on scammers catching you out with emails harbouring malicious attachments and links to fake websites.
Even if you’re wise to all this, there’s one massive weak link: online accounts. Many of us have signed up for dozens of accounts, and secured them with short, memorable, and often reused passwords that are easy to hack. Worse still, even if you’ve not personally given up your password, chances are at least one online service you use has been hacked, exposing your data to the so-called dark web.
Don’t believe us? In January, the Have I Been Pwned website released Collection 1, a compilation of over 770 million compromised online accounts, including login details and passwords. The site offers a search tool that lets you see if you’re on the list. And unless you’re very lucky or barely use online services, you’re almost certainly going to appear.
Don’t panic. In this feature, we reveal everything you need to know to find out if you’re on the list, what to do if
