Even if you are very careful with your computer security other sites are not and your email address can be hacked through no fault of your own if a third party where you were using the same password for multiple accounts is compromised, the first thing malicious hackers do when they get hold of someone’s username and login details is to try the same combination of username and password at Facebook, Twitter and online banking accounts. While readers of this blog will be intelligent enough to use a password manager and create unique passwords for every single site they register with, most Internet surfers still don’t do it.
ShouldIChangeMyPassword
ShouldIChangeMyPassword is a website that checks your email address against a large database of stolen online accounts released on the Internet by criminals, if it finds your email address in the database you get a warning, it is not a perfect system because the website is only as good as their database of compromised accounts is and some malicious hackers never release to the Internet stolen data, they rather steal money off them first.
Last year I had myself my email address and password leaked on the Internet when the Gawker website database was stolen with my email inside, ShouldIChangeMyPassword has successfully detected it providing me with the date on which the details were leaked onto the Internet. Whenever a new database of leaked passwords is made public the site is updated, as of right it can be checked against the hacked databases belonging to Mt. Gox, Pron, Infragard Atlanta, Sony, PBS, Fox.com, Gawker, and others.