How do I know if I have been hacked?

Even as the posts on my blog are mostly related to the technical aspects of Information security, here is a post that deals with the part of information security that touches all of us.

“How do I know if I have been hacked?”

After all, what is the point of all education(undergraduate, postgraduate degrees, certifications) if it cannot help us in our everyday life?

There is every possibility that most of us might have been hacked or in some way or the other. Though I have personally not been hacked(touch wood!! :))  I have heard many incidents whereby my acquaintances had their Facebook , Skype, email and other social media accounts compromised. Here are some mild hacking incidents that I have heard of around me. Let us see how they figured that their accounts may have been compromised and what they did to resolve the problem.

Situation #1:

Though Sita was using Facebook sporadically, her friends noticed that she was being “shown” online on Facebook at odd times like 3 a.m. or so on certain occasions. She was quickly alerted, and she noticed the login of her Facebook sessions was from other locations other than her current location.( Just as a FYI – you can see the location of your Facebook login by following these steps: Settings -> Security and Login)

Was she being hacked or was she close to being hacked was her initial thought. 

Countermeasure:

Sita quickly changed her Facebook account password and kept her account safe.

My thoughts:

Even if there is an iota of doubt, that your social media account may have been compromised, it is always good to change your password. In addition, it is good to enable two factor authentication and other security features. 

Situation #2:

Karen was using Facebook for quite a while before she decided to deactivate it for some time. Soon after, out of the blue, she received a mail from Facebook stating that they may have observed somebody trying to access it from a location other than her current location(yes, in this case too!)

Countermeasure:

Karen safely employed two factor authentication once she reactivated Facebook again.

My thoughts:

In this scenario again, it is better to be safe when having any doubt about whether your account may have been compromised. It is good to enable two factor authentication and get alerts about unrecognized logins. 

How do I know if I have been hacked?

While there are explicit signs of hacking which are present and can be understood easily, it is the subtle ones that are hard to detect and makes us wonder whether we are being hacked and our account has been compromised.

Considering the above two examples, we can state safely that you will know if you have been hacked if:

1. Your login location is showing a different place from where you are currently are now –  particularly in Facebook…( good to check the login information all/most of the time)
2. You receive messages from friends(either on Skype or Facebook or any other social media account) and you are sure that they didn’t send them
3. Or your friends receive messages from you and they are sure you didn’t send them
4. You see strange popups on your computer
5. You feel that your computer is behaving strangely

What to do if your social media accounts have been compromised?

1. The most obvious and natural thing to do is change your password ASAP
2. Enable two factor authentication if your accounts have been compromised earlier
3. Logout from all sessions on all social media accounts after you are done using them(Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Skype)
4. Change passwords frequently
5. Since hacking and cyber attacks are actually a reality, it is always good to keep up with issues surrounding the cyber world
6. And last but not least maintain a minimum online presence!

Were any of your social media accounts compromised? How did you figure that they were compromised? What did you do then? Leave them in the comments below or message me!