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- Immediately dispute the transactions with the online vendor and/or your bank.
- Report any credit cards you think may be compromised as lost or stolen and get new cards.
- Since so many messaging apps and 2FA protections are tied to your phone number, if you are receiving unwanted messages, you may need to get a new mobile number.
- Before you use a trusted friend, family member’s, new, or factory reset computer to deal with your online account passwords, make sure it is up-to-date with patches and a full antivirus scan has been recently run on it.
- Using the trusted computer, log in to all of your sites and change passwords. Do not store passwords in the web browser.
- Check to see if any devices or applications are registered with access to your account, such as Google or Amazon. Delete all devices and apps that are registered.
- Activate two-factor authentication (2FA) on any banking, online merchant accounts and social media accounts you are not prepared to close or abandon.
- If you have decided to remove or reduce your social media profile and live in the EU/UK, invoke your right to be forgotten with the social media provider.
- Using the Google search: “secure privacy settings for <insert social media site>” and step-by-step, enable those features/settings. Stalkers and online malcontents focus on poorly secured social media accounts to antagonize you.
- If you can’t or don’t want to wipe your phone back to factory settings, at least make sure your mobile device is patched and up-to-date and all your apps are at the latest version. Log in to each of your apps after you have changed all your passwords to confirm access. (Note: You may have to re-install some apps to re-register them with Google or Amazon accounts.)
- Activating 2FA will certainly identify if someone is trying to break into or brute force your online accounts. If you see 2FA authorization text messages for online accounts, and you’re not logging in, something shady is most certainly going on.
- Change/enable a local password and make sure you have a screensaver lock enabled.
- Review the applications that are installed on your computer. If you’re not sure what an application does, Google it. If it’s something that has the words “Remote Control, Remote Connection, or Remote Access,” chances are high that’s a major part of your security problem unless your computer is under management from an IT provider. If that’s the case, have them work through all the following steps.
- Patch and update all of your applications and operating system before you proceed with the next steps.
- Download, install, or update an antivirus solution and/or conduct a full scan of your system.
- Download, install, and establish an account for either Google Drive, Microsoft One-Drive, or Dropbox using your new password.
- Move documents, pictures, videos, etc. to your cloud storage folder and let it sync those files. Cloud storage vendors perform antivirus scanning of files being uploaded and downloaded.
- If you truly believe your computer may be compromised by malware, have it professionally re-installed or initiate a factory re-set. (Steps 5 and 6 are designed to back up your data prior to a factory re-set or professional re-install.)
- If you do a factory reset or professional re-install, you should ensure the machine is patched and updated and has an antivirus product installed as the first steps before you surf to your online accounts.
- Install all of your applications, including your cloud storage software, and then let this sync your files from Step 6.
- Patch and update applications as required. If there is an option to keep the application updated to the latest version, ensure it is enabled.
- Log in to your online accounts. Do not store passwords in the browser!
- If you have a lot of online accounts and passwords, consider using a password manager.
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