Quick Tidbits
Steps When Hacked

Published February 14, 2019

When hacked, it's important to take the following steps immediately:

• If it's an email hack, it was most likely a virus from a compromised email
  • First run a virus scan. Search Google for "free virus scanners" or find a couple free options in our Goodies section
  • Once determined the computer is virus free, update the email password:
    • If they use Premium email services, change their password via the control platform.
    • Passwords for business and sensative email services should follow these guidelines:
      • New passwords should not be password
      • New passwords should not be abc123
      • Username should not appear in password
      • First name should not appear in password
      • Last name should not appear in password
      • New password should be at least eight characters long
      • New password should contain at least 1 uppercase alphabet (A-Z)
      • New password should contain at least 1 special character (!@#$-=_+*)
      • New password should contain at least 1 number (0-9)
      • New passwords should not contain a quote "
      • New password should not contain a single quote '
      PLEASE NOTE: Premium email services often check for suspicious activity, and sometimes will catch virus hacks such before the customer even knows it happened due to the large amount of outgoing mail.
    • If using a free hosting email, change the password via the hosting interface.
      PLEASE NOTE: If the hack happened on the free hosted email, open a Support Ticket with the hosted email service immediately. Tell them what happened, that supposedly email was hacked, let them know the password has been already changed, and any other information; then ask that they run their own check to make sure they don't see any other security breaches.
  • Once the password is updated, change the password on all devices that access that email account to the new password.
• If it's a website that was supposedly hacked, then:
  • Immediately notify the company's IT support team.
  • Open a Support Ticket with the website host or datacenter, giving them all pertinent information.