"Have I been hacked?": the Web pages where you can see if they attacked your email account and when they did

News about cyber and mass hackers are increasingly holding headlines worldwide.

And what once seemed a remote possibility, is becoming a common experience: being a prey to the cybercriminals.

It has recently occurred to large companies and institutions-the WannaCry virus or the most recent Petya are good examples-to social networks-like LinkedIn, Tumblr or MySpace-and also to large email services like Yahoo or Gmail.

Indeed, one of the biggest concerns is that hackers access our email account and rob us of private documents, bank details and other sensitive personal and professional information.

It can happen in several ways, but the most common is usually through spam (or junk) that contains a malicious program that infects your computer, many times without you noticing.

How to detect if your computer was hacked and what to do about it?

However, finding out can be simple if you know where to go.

There are several websites that are dedicated to register the emails affected by the actions of the hackers, creating a database of your own that you can access with only your email. These are some of them.

"Have I been pwned?"

Probably, the most popular website among cybersecurity specialists is have I been pwned? (which can be translated into Spanish as "Have I been hacked?") and has so far already recorded nearly four million infringed accounts.

Its name derives from the inglesaowned voice, which in online gaming jargon means "I was defeated."

Visita aquí "Have I Been Pwned?"

It was created by security specialist Troy Hunt, who works for Microsoft as a regional director and ensures that he created it as a public service, because "data leaks are on the rise and many people do not know the scale and frequent that occur."

Using it is very simple: just enter your email or your user name on a social network, and it will show you right away if your account was hacked and when (for example, you can tell if it was because there was a massive attack, like the one that happened with Dropbox or Netflix in October 2016).

When entering your data will appear message that tells you if your account was pirated (in red) or if it was not (green).

Hacked-Emails

The web site hacked-emails (emails hacked), which also exists in Spanish ("Have I been hacked?"), works in a similar way to the previous one, but includes additional databases.

Therefore, it is advisable to check your email here as well, as it may detect an attack that could not register the platform of Troy Hunt.

Visit here "hacked-emails"

So far-as indicated on its website-hacked-email has already registered attacks of more than four and a half million email addresses.

The person behind the project is José María Chia, a systems analyst and web Developer specializing in scalability and social networks based in Spain.

"The main reason why I decided to create this site is to contribute every day my grain of sand to the awareness of the increasing amount of leaks and leaks of information that happen on the internet", says Chia, who ensures that it does not save any of the emails that are consulted.

Breach Alarm

You can also enter your email at breach alarm (filtering alarm) that provides an email account tracking with which you can receive a real-time alert if your email is affected by any type of attack.

Visit here "breach Alarm"

This platform also offers guides to act against Ramsonware attacks like WannaCry and options to protect your email from future cyber.

What to do if you are hacked?

Change your password immediately, the longer and more complex, the better (and use a different one for each site)

Use a password manager, for example, LastPass (a free service)

Do not write any of your passwords on your phone or in your email account

Enables an additional code or security key to your password

Use the two-step verification (protect your account also with your mobile phone)