personal security
5 articles with this tag
How to check if someone accessed your account: sign-in activity, signed-in devices and forwarding settings (Google, Microsoft, Apple, LINE, Instagram, X)
A guide to checking for unauthorized access. Look in three places: (1) sign-in activity and signed-in devices (Google 'Your devices', Microsoft 'Recent activity', Apple Account device list, LINE 'Devices', Instagram and Facebook 'Where you're logged in', X 'Apps and sessions'); (2) account settings (mail forwarding and filters, connected apps, recovery email and phone); (3) the device itself (iPhone configuration profiles, Android device admin apps, browser extensions). This site's take: changing the password alone can leave signed-in sessions, forwarding rules and connected apps in place. If you find something, sign out other sessions, change the password right away, then check recovery details, two-step verification, forwarding, connected apps and payments in that order.
Asked for a BitLocker recovery key? How to find the 48-digit key, and what you can do if you can't
A BitLocker recovery key is a 48-digit number Windows asks for when it can't unlock the drive automatically — after a BIOS/UEFI update, a TPM change, a change to the boot configuration and similar events. On a personal PC, sign in at https://aka.ms/myrecoverykey with your Microsoft account and look for the key whose ID matches the first 8 digits of the recovery key ID on screen. For work or school PCs, use https://aka.ms/aadrecoverykey or ask IT. Microsoft says its support cannot retrieve, provide or recreate a lost recovery key; without it, the only options are to undo the change that triggered recovery or to reset the PC, which removes all files. This site's view: a recovery key is something to locate before trouble, not after. Treat anyone who asks you for the key by phone or message as a scammer.
How to check if your password was leaked: using Have I Been Pwned safely, and the checks already built into your browser and phone
A guide to checking for leaked passwords. Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) tells you whether an email address appears in a known data breach, which service it came from and what kinds of data leaked. Its password check (Pwned Passwords) hashes the password on your device and sends only the first five characters of the hash, so the password itself is never sent (HIBP API documentation). This site's take: check your current passwords where they are already saved (Google Password Manager, the iPhone Passwords app, Edge Password Monitor, or your password manager) instead of typing them into a website, and use HIBP for email addresses. A 'not found' result is not proof that nothing leaked.
'Your PC is infected' warnings are almost always fake: how to close them, and what to do if you already called
A browser page shouting 'your computer is infected' with a phone number is a tech support scam. Japan's IPA says that if the screen merely appeared, the PC is not infected and closing it is enough, and that most victims get hurt because they couldn't close it and called. This site's view: the goal of the fake warning is not infection — it is getting you to call. Genuine security features never show a phone number. If you can close it, you're done; if it went further, act on the stage you reached.
Spam from your own email address: usually a forged sender, and how to tell if you were hacked
Most spam that arrives 'from' your own address is a forged sender field; your account was never touched. Japan's IPA and JC3 have both warned about extortion emails made to look like this, and IPA says its help desk has not seen a single case of footage actually being released. This site's view: the sender can write anything in the From field. Before you panic, spend five minutes on three places — Sent, sign-in history, forwarding rules. And if the email quotes a password you still use, change it today.