I’m sure we all live in a world where we assume our accounts are all safe as long as we can still use them regularly. Same goes for our banking account, as long as the amount does not disappear suddenly, we will assume our account is safe.
What if I were to tell you that your account is already hacked and someone knows your username and password? By having these two criteria, it is sufficient to enter into sites like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Paypal, and many more to try out your username and password combination.
I’m sure today with every one of us holding at least 5 online accounts, we share the same username and password between accounts. If you are one of those, you are at the right place for today I am going to share with you a site where you can check whether your account is hacked or compromised.
Pwnedlist.com is a creation of two security researchers Alen Puzic and Jasiel Spelman from DVLabs, a division of HP/TippingPoint. What you need to do over there is to enter the username or email address (not the password) which you usually used to login into any online websites and hit the Check button. In just seconds, the result will be shown whether your account is compromised or not.
Up to now, they had discovered close to 5 million sets of username and password which were compromised. Those data were collected from places like Torrent dump or Pastebin where hackers love to upload those stolen accounts at.
If you are worried that sending your username to Pwnedlist could be dangerous, then you don’t have to worry as you are on HTTPS where your transmission is encrypted. Whoever that can tap into your transmitted data will get something that is total gibberish and needs to be decrypted to know the actual values.
Lastly on the security of Pwnedlist, they don’t store your username or email address on their server. This means that if anyone hacked into Pwnedlist, they will not get the 5 million records of username and passwords combination.
If you somehow found yourself in the list among the 5 million records, don’t panic as no one is sure that your account is used out there. What you need to do now is quickly log into all your accounts and start changing passwords. Do ensure that you create a strong password where it should lengthy and complicated.
So now, do run a quick check for the sake of your account safety. Trust me that it does not take any longer than 1 minute to complete the process.
Alan Tay is a software engineer who specializes in digital security. He is also the author who runs IT Security Column, a IT Security blog where he mostly writes about computer security tips and how to remove virus.
Thanks for the link. I have been searching for tips on how would they know my account. It happens to me twice,good thing the account that they hacked is only dummy accounts.
Twitter: AlanOnSecurity
says:
That is good for you. If you have your name there, you can still fix by changing your password
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tried to use your system to check an account it said I have to use an up to date system to work.
I use windows7 and IE 9. What’s up?
thanks for sharing this information i will check all of my sites with this way.
thanks a lot
Good Luck!
This post scared me a lot. So I immediately went through the site and checked my email. Fortunately, It’s not on the list. I can afford to lose all my social networking account but not my email. All my business and personal life rely on it. Thanks for the scare Alan. That put my mind into awareness.
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Twitter: AlanOnSecurity
says:
Do check it often as you might not get compromised today does not mean you are not compromised in the future. Good luck
Twitter: computerguide18
says:
Nice find Alan. I’m glad all my usernames and emails are not in the list…. yet. It’s so easy to use, thanks for sharing
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Looks like a useful tool, but once i enter my user and pass for sure this credentials will be stored somewhere, for a certain period of time – and this doesn’t sound so good.
Twitter: WindowsTalk
says:
I checked one of my emails as well as a username and it was fine. It never asked me for a password.
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Twitter: AlanOnSecurity
says:
The site does not save your credentials. After all, it does not ask for your password as well just like James said.
I don’t like the idea of sending my user name to a website for only them to pwn me, lol. Just make sure your have number at least in your password or a number with a cap letter. Never gone wrong for me.
Twitter: WindowsTalk
says:
Remember, your username is not personal; that is, the same username could be used by hundreds of people on different sites. It is the password assigned to them that makes them unique.
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It’s a great help for me and in fact, you pushed me to change settings. I better have a strong password in every account I have.
oh after check there are my 2 accoint have hacked
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Twitter: AlanOnSecurity
says:
Make sure you change all your passwords related to the account. Good luck there
Oh, actually I’m among those people who have accounts on different sites and who have the same passport on them. So thanks a lot for this link! I should use it!
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I think this is a useful tool, but once I enter my user and pass for sure this credentials will be stored somewhere, for a certain period of time.
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Twitter: AlanOnSecurity
says:
Well, first you don’t need to enter password. Second, the username is not stored with them
Twitter: katiepecbvda
says:
Thanks for the link. I have been worried if my bank account has gotten hacked lately. Now I can find out and know in the future.
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Twitter: AlanOnSecurity
says:
Not listed there does not mean you are somewhat safe. It just show that you are not compromised. Ensure you keep your credentials safe with you all the time to ensure the best security.
Twitter: GearOutdoor
says:
Oh, Alan! Thank you for this post. It is great when I find such a great tips and advice. I did the test and luckily my site was not on the list! I will bookmark though your post to do the test again in the future. From this day forward, I will keep my credentials more safe. Honestly, very helpful post Alan.
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As an online entrepreneur myself I understand why it is so important to keep the access data for your account in secure. Sometimes the success of an online business depends on the security of your account. That’s why it is necessary to check if your account is hacked from time to time. As an online entrepreneur I find it very interesting to read this article. Thanks.
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Twitter: AlanOnSecurity
says:
I can see you are serious when it comes to security.
On your point, I strongly agree. But I think it pretty much apply to everyone that we must check from time to time whether our account is hacked.
It never happened to me. Though i am a security tech and that might have helped.
It boils down to this: Choose a reliable security software, configure it properly and you should not have any issues!
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Rubbish! Security software will not protect you alone. Firstly, a person needs to have the necessary knowledge to operate that software.For example, its no good putting a good firewall on your computer, when you don’t have a clue how to configure it and/or how to react when you are confronted with a series of requests asking you to either allow or disallow certain processes.
no matter how good or easy a program says it is, a person will still need to interact with it at a certain times and under certain conditions. There is no such thing as an idiot-proof program. Its up to individuals to take responsibility for their own security…not their government or their aunties dog…but theirs.
It’s about time so-called professionals in IT-security stopped trying to patronise and nanny people by telling them to trust in properly configured software. The bottom line is that any piece of software is only as good as the person using it.
Whoa, thanks for the advice! I’d gotten really complacent with my accounts, even though I should know better having had several email accounts hacked over the years. Most recently a friend started getting emails from a an account I’d forgotten about 6 years ago! It was the devil to get it sorted out. Hopefully all is well, but I’ll be keeping an eye on everything from now on. Thank you, Alan!
Twitter: julidarmaputra
says:
Thanks for your info bro. I am new bie, i must learn many more about how to safe my account. By the way your information is very useful for me. And I agree with Alan Tay, we must check our accout time to time whether our account is hacked
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I tried to use the check, but it said to visit a modem browser? What are they asking for or saying?
I tried this link , it didnt work it said “Your browser doesn’t support the canvas element – please visit in a modern browser”
Im using Win7
IE9
I think its a great idea to help people feel safe, or if they arent they know how and where to sort it!
Well, my hotmail account is listed from 2010, and it says to change my pw on all related accounts. I understand changing my hotmail pw, which I did, but the others? Over time, I have probably used that hotmail addy to access 100′s of sites. How on earth could I possible remember them all, much less take a week to change all the pw’s?
Seems to me, changing the hotmail account is enough.
A word of caution. If, like me you have a lot of different e mail addresses and you’re still using Internet Explorer the pwned site will not let you check more than two before requiring you verify your existence with a test, and that test cannot be done on IE. They require you to use an “up to date” browser. So test your most important account first. Apparently they will suspect you of being a robot if your IP address keeps popping up.
Ok so I used IE 9 put in email and wow!! it comes up with:
Gotcha We’re gonna need to see some ID, and states to: Please draw the shape in the box, what box? Your browser doesn’t support the canvas element – please visit in a modern browser.
So I open Google Chrome, same site, same email, what do I get the big: NOPE congrats ! Your email is is not on our list.
So whats up with this can you please explain is this just some bull to get our emails?
Since I tried all of my emails including ones from my own site which are never used except for very secure people maybe you will email me why one browser says I am not safe and the other says I am safe.
Not really trusting PC Pitstop right now and really PCPissed off
DrewG
Twitter: WindowsTalk
says:
Hi Drew,
This post has nothing to do with PC Pitstop. WindowsTalk is affiliated with them, but the post content here is solely mine.
I tried the link in IE9, and while the site does not display properly, it still gives the same result as Chrome & Firefox.I do not know that site is having a problem with IE9.
I tried to go to the https://pwnedlist.com/ site and received a message (Google Chrome) that
the site’s security certificate is not trusted…
Twitter: WindowsTalk
says:
Which browser and what version of that browser, Bob?
Twitter: WindowsTalk
says:
Same here, Bob. I receive no such message. Perhaps it is your AV software prompting this message?
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Thanks for this, I just ran a check on the various accounts I have & am very happy that none have been compromised!
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Twitter: tanyahuch
says:
Hi there,
as for me the main problem is to store my accounts passwords as I have thousands of them generated and spun. So far I have been using ropoform for that.
Regards. Tanya
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Thanks Tanya, that’s a great idea & definitely foolproof!
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thanks for sharing this information i will check all of my sites with this way.
thanks a lot….
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Twitter: harpreet4564
says:
Thanks to share a informative post.this will help us to protect our account from a hackers.If it is possible to find that our account is save of hacked then this site will be very beneficial for all the users.
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Thanks for the link, This is a great help. I will checked my account later after surfing the net.
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Thanks so much for addressing the issue of your information being hacked. With today’s modern technology I am continually fearful of hackers. I don’t know if that is a healthy fear, but I continually hear how my friends’ electronics get hacked.
Hacked accounts would probably be one of the worst things that can happen to me. Hope it would never be. Thanks for sharing this valuable tip!
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Thanks a lot for your tips dude. I found some celebs in my country have their accounts (usually Twitter) hacked. Haha..
When it comes to security of our important accounts, say, Twitter, Blogger, WordPress, Facebook, and the most importantly, Paypal, we have to really make sure that the password we use for each account must be DIFFERENT and if it’s necessary, take a pen and a note, and write all of your passwords but don’t forget to cover some of the letters with * symbol (e.g,. stu**d), so your family or friends will never find out the combination of your passwords when you’re not at home.
Tim Miller
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my cousin’s account on facebook was hacked yesterday, it keeps spreading messages and videos which we believe is a virus. thank you for sharing this information, i will let her know about this.
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I am very interested in the title of this article. Some people write that create a paypal account using gmail is not recommended. They say that gmail is very easy to hack. Is this true? I really hope the answer…
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Twitter: ithauphy
says:
My Facebook account was hacked several times. I also have to change the password and email. I only use my computer at home. For the third time, my account was hacked. Until now, I am still confused to secure my Facebook.
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