Securing your Internet Accounts — part 3
Post Mortem
OK, say everything has been too late. Your facebook account has been ̶h̶a̶c̶k̶e̶d̶ cracked. And you don’t know what to do.
You can still get your account back.
Go to https://www.facebook.com/hacked/
And fill in all of necessary information, later on Facebook will check and review whether your account was actually breached. They can easily revert this and give your access back.
One tip: DO NOT CREATE NEW ACCOUNT as replacement in meantime 😆 Seriously, Facebook will think that you never lost access at all. This is based on true story when we tried to help our friend.
The similar recovery steps apply as well with google email. https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6294825?hl=en
My son has a gmail that he has not secured yet. He used to use it for online school purpose. One day somehow it got cracked and we tried to follow the steps, and reported to google. In the form we also submitted other email that google may contact.
In less than 24 hours google replied that his account has been successfully recovered 💛
But we never again use that recovered email because the username was not cool (my son signed-up himself), — though I already prepared other email special for him since he was born, LOL. And he is now using that. And of course it is secured.
Still, my friends, as mentioned in previous story: you MAY NOT lose access to your primary email account, because we would never know the impact between the time your lost access, until the time it has been recovered.
So haRies, we presume your gmail address is always safe ?
I do not use google as primary mail. I never think my data and privacy are safe with google — they can anytime peek into our emails if they want. Therefore I host my email(s) somewhere else, a private and a paid one.
IF YOU ARE NOT PAYING FOR THE PRODUCT, THEN YOU ARE THE PRODUCT — Netflix: Social Dilemma (will discuss this in other story) 😉
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OK haRies, how about gaming accounts, I heard lots of hacks happened? Can they be recovered too?
Let us talk one by one, the majorities:
STEAM
Steam by default enforces to use 2FA, and the code is sent out to email address. So as long as we are not ̶s̶t̶u̶p̶i̶d̶ weird enough to have same password between email, and gaming account — steam should be safe.
UPLAY
UPlay recently introduced 2FA/ Google Authenticator, (I think around 2018). Yes, there were many cracks for UPlay. But as long as you have the email and proof of game purchase, you can always contact the support anytime, and they will restore the stolen account easily. Many have done so.
ORIGIN
Just like UPlay, Origin just recently introduced 2FA in around 2019 if I am not mistaken. I also heard many have recovered their stolen accounts. So no need to worry.
ROCKSTAR
If you are familiar with GTA/ Grand Theft Auto series, as well Red Dead Redemption games, you must have heard Rockstar. No, they do not have 2FA, and in fact their security profile is not that secure. Very easy to change password and email, without verifying currently registered email address. This is also the reason many cracks happened for Rockstar accounts. But don’t worry, their support is ready to help to recover stolen ones. And it works!
Finally, NINTENDO
Unlike what has been reported about many accounts have been compromised, Nintendo actually has a very decent account recovery. Cracker cannot change email address without access to original inbox. And the legitimate owner can reset the password easily, if they still have the email access. And 2FA is also available (Google Authenticator). It is totally mandatory to enable 2FA with Nintendo, since the shopping functionality (if your account is integrated with credit card or PayPal for example) only requires re-entering the password to buy digital content, and it is not refundable.
So, what are you waiting for? Enable 2FA to all of your internet accounts right now!
