Almost everybody has a computer or a smart device connected to the internet and an email account with at least one social media account and recently, we have heard so many cases of personal and business accounts getting hacked online. For security conscious people, it is very devastating and they get confused on what the next step to take is. In fact, some people just create an entirely new account and leave the old one for the hacker. Like we all know, it is not easy to start all over again, so here are some things to do if any of your computer or online accounts get hacked.
Change your password from something very easy to remember to something that is stronger but contains different characters including upper case letters, numbers and symbols. make sure it is something that cannot be easily guessed.
The next thing you need to do is change your username. Most people just use their first name as a basic username. Now that you have a target on your back, having already been hacked, you need to secure yourself and let other hackers know that you are unhackable.
Run a software anti virus scan.
You need to get help from the I.T staff in your work place or a friend who is good with computers. We all have friends who are whiz kids and those friends are usually hackers themselves and can help you counter- hack your account.
Next, you need to turn off all electronic devices in your home. This is because skilled hackers are not going to stop at just your computer. Your television, printer and other electronic devices are at risk of being disabled by hackers to distract you while they’re hacking your WiFi network.
Once your network has been compromised, you need to delete the internet off your computer immediately. To wipe the internet off your computer, you need to go on your desktop and look for the internet explorer icon. You may also have browsers such as Google Chrome or Firefox explorer. If you have these, they will need to be deleted as well. Now to delete these browsers, all you have to do is to right click on the icon and click delete.
There is usually a file on your PC called system32, this is a default program from Microsoft to allow them to auto update your system/repair your system remotely. Hackers often manipulate this software and access your PC through that, so delete system 32 and the hackers wont be able to hack you anymore.
As soon as you find out that you have been hacked, try to contact your key contacts and clients telling them that your account has been hacked just in case they receive email messages from you.
Once you have taken all these steps, turn off your CPU so it cannot be hacked any further.
Jumoke Akiyode
