You might have noticed that there have been an increasing number of attacks on company servers and databases in recent times. Some groups hack for the fun of it all, although I don’t really see where the fun in causing such damage is, though. However, others hackers have more malicious and dangerous intentions.
In the case that you happen to have an account with a company that had been hacked, then fret not, because you can use PwnedList to check if your information has been compromised.
The online tool was developed by Alan Puzic, who is a professional security intelligence researcher who’s into “white-hat” hacking (or the good kind, if there really is one). In an interview, Puzic said: “Our goal was to design a simple-to-use online portal where an average user could check to see if his or her account credentials were leaked.”
You can check if your accounts are safe simply by typing in your username or e-mail address and hitting “Check.” If you find you’ve been compromised, now would be a good time to go change all of your passwords that use that email address. And if you’re worried about PwnedList itself, don’t, because they won’t store any of the information that you enter or any hits on searches you’ve made for your accounts on its database.
[via PCWorld]