We live in a networked world in which we try to be constantly connected and upload the important moments of our lives with a simple click. But are our online accounts secure? A website has returned to the forefront in response to a growing problem. It lets you know if your personal information is safe. "Have I Been Pwned" works in a very simple way. This website has been around since 2013. The creators of this website use a database to check accounts, you choose, in order to ensure that your information is secure.

How to use:

  • Go to the website haveibeenpwned.com and put your email or your username in the white box. Then just click on "pwned," which is the English term meaning "owned" or "defeated."
  • If your password is being published in forums, a red message will immediately appear indicating the various locations where it is being displayed. What you have to do next is to immediately change your password and check if any of your data has been stolen.
  • Also, the site doesn’t tell you about keywords but passwords, and not simply that, but all of an individual's information that may have been compromised.

For the most suspicious, it is to be noted that it is being managed by Troy Hunt, a Microsoft employee who is responsible precisely for the branch of Security Development.

The news was advanced by the "Observer" newspaper and explains that the need to create a website of this nature came at a time when millions of passwords from the file-sharing website, Dropbox, have been posted on several forums where "Hackers" can access and invade the accounts of their users.

The most publicized case came from a 36-year-old hacker who was able to access the accounts of various celebrities including actresses Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis through Apple's iCloud and Google's Gmail services. He then published several photographs where the actresses appeared in intimate moments. The hacker has used a scheme known as "phishing," where your target receives an email from your bank or another website and, if there is no indication that it may be false, the victim ends up downloading to his computer a file or accesses a link that contains a virus.

That's how he got access to multiple celebrity accounts, simply accessing their contacts and choosing his next victim. Christopher Chaney was eventually caught and sentenced to ten years in prison in 2012. Since November 2017, Have I Been Pwned has received around sixty thousand daily visitors. Ultimately, this site’s sole purpose seems to be to sell the visitor a password generator.