My email and password were found on the dark web – what should I do?

The Security Dashboard in the Sticky Password app notifies you when your data (email addresses and passwords) is found in data from breaches found on the dark web. With information from Sticky Password’s Security Insights, you can take timely action to mitigate the risk to your accounts and protect your digital data.

The three severity labels in the Security Insights feature help you understand the risk to each account that is affected. Keep in mind that just because your data was found in the breach data does not mean that hackers have accessed your account — though that may be the case; it does mean that bad actors (hackers and cyber criminals) are buying, selling and otherwise misusing the data.

Your quick action based on the information you get from your security tools is an essential part to blocking and stopping violations of your accounts. Sticky Password’s Security Insights inform of the vulnerability of each of your accounts that has an issue.

Actions that should be taken to protect your passwords

When your email addresses and passwords are identified in the breach data, keep calm: a systematic approach goes a long way to protecting yourself.

1. Go to the account website and log in.

2. Go to the site’s password change page.

3. Follow the process that the affected site has for changing the password. By using Sticky Password’s password generator, you’ll be able to generate a strong and unique password. The longer and more unique your password, the better. Note that while some sites still accept 8 characters for their password length, this is not a strong password. We recommend at least 12 characters — 20 characters is even better; you don’t have to worry about having to remember the password — Sticky Password does it for you!

   

4. Save the changes on

• the website:

• as well as in the Sticky Password application:

After changing the password, you may want to contact the company or organization to find out more about the breach. They may have information about what they have done in the meantime to better protect customer accounts in the future, as well as more recommendations for you to protect your account with them.

Learn more on how our Dark Web Monitoring service protects your data from breaches.