Even careful people can get hacked. What matters is acting quickly and in the right order. This lesson is your calm, step-by-step plan.
Signs your account may be hacked:
- Friends say they got strange messages from you.
- You find emails you did not send, or your messages are being auto-forwarded somewhere.
- Your password suddenly does not work, or you get “new sign-in” alerts you did not make.
What to do, in order:
- From a different, trusted device, change your password right away to a new strong passphrase. If you can still log in, do this first.
- Turn on 2FA if it was not already on (Lesson 4). This kicks intruders out and keeps them out.
- Check your recovery settings. Make sure the recovery phone and email are still yours, hackers often change these. Also check for email forwarding or filters you did not set up, and remove them.
- Use the provider’s “account recovery.” Gmail and Outlook have step-by-step recovery pages if you are fully locked out; that is why the recovery phone and email from Lesson 3 matter.
- Warn your contacts not to click anything the hacker may have sent from your account.
- If personal or financial info was exposed, report it and get a recovery plan at IdentityTheft.gov (the FTC’s free service), and contact your bank if money is involved.
A quick example. You get a “new sign-in from another state” alert. You calmly change your password from your phone, turn on 2FA, remove a strange forwarding rule you find in settings, and message your family a heads-up. Fifteen minutes, and your account is yours again.