BSI launched a service to check if your online credentials were compromised

Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) warns that cybercriminals have compromised around 16 million email addresses of online accounts. They launched a service to help users find out if their credentials have been stolen: http://bit.ly/1eiR7p7 (in German)

bsi-check

After you submit, you see in a second window a code which is going to be present in the email that you might receive. If your email address is not present in the list of BSI, you will not receive any email.

bsi-check-after

 

No matter if you understand German or not, all you need to do is to check the box on the top left corner, add your email in the field and then click on the blue button.
According to BSI, researchers and law enforcement agencies have determined that 16 million usernames (usually email addresses) and passwords have been compromised after analyzing botnets.

We know that many users use the same login information for multiple online services, despite the fact that we continuously warn that this is not a good practice. If you do this, then the first thing is to check if your email has been compromised using the above site. No matter if you get any results back or not, you should change the password for each service according to the advice we wrote here.

Avira is involved in the BSI initiative by providing the free second opinion scanner PC Cleaner.

If you wonder what does this have to do with the email address: the credentials were stolen by malware installed on the PC. This tool does nothing else than scan your computer and search for malware (any kind of malware not only that responsible for stealing credentials).

 

 

Sorin Mustaca

IT Security Expert

from Avira – TechBlog http://bit.ly/1eiR9xl
via IFTTT


© Copyright 2014 Sorin Mustaca, All rights Reserved. Written For: Sorin Mustaca on Cybersecurity


Check www.endpoint-cybersecurity.com for seeing the consulting services we offer.

Visit www.itsecuritynews.info for latest security news in English
Besuchen Sie de.itsecuritynews.info für IT Sicherheits News auf Deutsch