Dear reader,
The other day Google Chrome sent me a message stating “Check your passwords. A data breach on a site or app exposed your password.” and prompted me to change the password associated with various old accounts from many years ago that used the same password. I did some further research and discovered that this old email account had been listed under both the “Breaches” section and “Pasted” section of a database called “Have I Been Pwned” (still not quite sure what this means but when I first googled the issue it said to use this website: www.haveibeenpwned.com).
I understand that this is completely my fault for using the same password but was hoping someone could advise me on the next step to take. Should I contact law enforcement? Some sort of lawyer? My worry is that because many of the accounts for which google suggested is change the password were ones I created to help my parents buy things on websites a long time ago that their information was exposed as well or someone will steal my accounts and use them to do something horrible to others. I am quite scared as I don’t know much about computers myself or what this situation entails and this is all happening at a rough time in my life. Any help or advice would be immensely appreciated.
Best Regards
Good job being proactive. Notify your parents. Rethink your password practices and involve them too. It’s most likely not lead to any real damages but now is always a great time to review your security posture! Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.