How to know if your email address has been compromised(hacked)

 

Hello folks, in today's day to day life you have been entering your combination of email address and password to sign up to different applications to use them(web & mobile). There lies a bitter truth that at times there is data breach in those applications databases and at the least, your email address is compromised. Sometimes more than that, so it's better if you know that your email address is compromised or not so that you can protect it from those kinds of leaks. As privacy is a concern and most of the users of those applications are assured their data are safe in their hands, which in fact is not so true. 

Today I am here to inform you about a site where you can find out if your email address has been compromised or not. You can secure it as per the instruction, It will show you the applications where your data has been breached.

Have I Been Pwned? (HIBP is a website that allows internet users to check whether their personal data has been compromised by data breaches. The service collects and analyzes hundreds of database dumps and pastes containing information about billions of leaked accounts, and allows users to search for their own information by entering their username or email address. Users can also sign up to be notified if their email address appears in future dumps. The site has been widely touted as a valuable resource for internet users wishing to protect their own security and privacy. Have I Been Pwned? was created by security expert Troy Hunt on 4 December 2013.

The primary function of Have I Been Pwned? since it was launched is to provide the general public a means to check if their private information has been leaked or compromised. Visitors to the website can enter an email address, and see a list of all known data breaches with records tied to that email address. The website also provides details about each data breach, such as the backstory of the breach and what specific types of data were included in it.

Have I Been Pwned? also offers a "Notify Me" service that allows visitors to subscribe to notifications about future breaches. Once someone signs up with this notification mailing service, they will receive an email message any time their personal information is found in a new data breach.

In September 2014, Hunt added functionality that enabled new data breaches to be automatically added to HIBP's database. The new feature used Dump Monitor, a Twitter bot that detects and broadcasts likely password dumps found on Pastebin pastes, to automatically add new potential breaches in real-time. Data breaches often show up on Pastebin before they are widely reported on; thus, monitoring this source allows consumers to be notified sooner if they've been compromised.

Along with detailing which data breach events the email account has been affected by, the website also points those who appear in their database search to install a password manager, namely 1Password, which Troy Hunt has recently endorsed. An online explanation on his website ^[8] explains his motives and maintains that monetary gain is not the goal of this partnership.

In August 2017, Hunt made public 306 million passwords which could be accessed via a web search or downloadable in bulk.

In February 2018 British computer scientist, Junade Ali, created a communication protocol (using k-Anonymity and cryptographic hashing) to anonymously verify if a password was leaked without fully disclosing the searched password. This protocol was implemented as a public API in Hunt's service^[ and is now consumed by multiple websites and services including password managers and browser extensions. This approach was later replicated by Google's Password Checkup feature.

your valuable comments will be much appreciated. Did you check your email on the site, if it's pwned or not?

source:https://en.wikipedia.org/