What to do if your account has been hacked?

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 17:55:11 -0400
notice

Imagine this scenario: recently, your UMBC account was breached. You are unsure how your account was used during the breach or how to secure your account. Below are steps to help you regain access.

1. Change your password immediately. Changing your password is necessary and should be the first step you take to secure your account. This will essentially kick the hackers off of your account.

2. Change your security questions. Even if you changed your password, they could regain access to your account if your security questions are the same.

3. Check your account activity. Often you will see the IP address of the perpetrator. This is very helpful to security; we can use this to identify other compromised accounts.

4. Notify Security of the breach. By notifying security (security@umbc.edu), we can inform the campus of the breach. In addition, we can make sure the bad guys got kicked off and identify any other changes made to your account during the compromise.

5. Check your reply-to email. Sometimes, after an account was compromised, the Reply-To email is changed, especially if your email was used for spamming. If this change occurs, you will not receive email from your professors or other staff. Instruction for changing your reply to email can be found here: https://www.gmass.co/blog/reply-to-address/#:~:text=Setting%20the%20Reply%2DTo%20in,address%2C%20and%20hit%20Save%20Changes.

6. Install Duo. Duo is UMBC’s second-factor authentication service. With this, no one can access your account unless they have bothyour password and your phone. For more information, visit: https://wiki.umbc.edu/display/faq/Two-Factor+Authentication+with.+DUO

7. Check your other accounts. If you used the same password on your UMBC account that you have on any other account (online banking, Instagram, Paypal, etc.), you should assume that all accounts using that password are compromised. This is a good reason to use different passwords in all important accounts..

Hopefully, these tips will help you feel more confident about your account’s security. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us at security@umbc.edu.

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