News and Updates

There is a free and easy way to discover if your email address has been hacked (or “pwned” –see the definition of pwned below).  The website “Have I Been Pwned” (www.hibp.com) will quickly search through a database of known breaches to see if your email address was included in the breached data.  This database is populated by an automated ‘bot’ that searches for stolen credentials.

The site will also indicate the number of times your information has been “pasted” onto websites that post up samples of breached data.  Pasting sites are used by hackers to demonstrate the results of their hacks – presumably to attract potential buyers of the stolen data.  The site also offers an email notification service should your information appear in a new hack.  [Read more in this article]

** “pwned” –  derives from “pwn”, which itself is derived from the “own”, as in ownership.  The term pwn originated in the hacker community as a misspelling of the word own.  The meaning is somewhat sinister; once someone has been hacked, the hacker has a measure of control over the victim; i.e. the hacker ‘owns’ the victim.  The term is also used in the gaming community; when a player is defeated by an opponent, they are said to have been “pwned”.