7. The Moment You Suspect a Leak
LESSON 7 OF 7 · 8 MIN
The Moment You Suspect a Leak
Speed matters more than certainty. If you think a password may have been exposed, act as if it was — the cost of being wrong is a few minutes.
Do these four things, in this order
- Change passwords from a device you trust — your phone or another computer. Never from the machine you suspect: if something is watching, it will simply capture the new password too.
- Turn on two-factor authentication everywhere it is offered, starting with email and banking. A stolen password then stops being enough.
- Check the account itself — recent sign-in activity, recovery email and phone, and any mail-forwarding rules. Attackers leave a way back in; removing the intruder from the computer does not remove it from the account.
- Watch the bank. In the case from Lesson 1 the money moved roughly a week after the incident, long after everyone assumed it was over.
And tell us — early, even if you are not sure
You will never be blamed for reporting something that turns out to be nothing. Reporting within the hour usually means a password reset. Reporting a week later usually means an investigation, and sometimes a loss that cannot be reversed.
You have finished the course. If one habit comes out of it, make it this: passwords live in the vault, never in the browser — and a new computer does not make an old problem disappear.
1.
Where should you change your passwords from after a suspected leak?
2.
Why keep watching the bank after the computer has been cleaned?