Are Your Passwords On The Dark Web How To Check What Leaked After A Data Breach

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There are things you can do to protect yourself if your passwords have been stolen.

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If your personal data has been compromised, you often won't learn about it until , , , , or any other company you're trusted with your information notifies you about a data breach. By that time your birthday, Social Security number, credit card number, health records or other data will have already been exposed or stolen. 
Any stolen personal information that leads data thieves to your identity can let hackers do everything from making purchases and opening up credit accounts in your name, to filing for your tax refunds and making medical claims, all posing as you. What's worse, billions of these hacked login credentials are available on the dark web, to easily download for free.





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You can't stop , but you can take a few steps to check if your information may be compromised and to limit the damage done from a breach. If you use a password manager that creates unique passwords, you can ensure that if one site gets breached, your  won't give hackers access to your accounts on other sites. can also help you manage all your login information, making it easy to create and then use unique passwords.

After a cyberattack, a couple of monitoring tools can alert you to which of your stolen credentials are out in the wild on the dark web, giving you a running start at limiting the damage the thieves can do. Here's how to use two free monitoring tools --  and   -- to see which of your email addresses and passwords are compromised, so you can take action.


























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How to use Google's Password Checkup 
As part of its , Google offers the free Password Checkup tool, which monitors usernames and passwords you use to sign into sites outside of Google's domain and notifies you if those login credentials have been exposed. (You may remember when it was a Chrome extension you had to add separately to Google's browser. This is the same tool folded into Google's password manager.)

Google's Password Checkup finds a few password problems.

Screenshot by Clifford Colby/CNET

1. If you use Google's password service to keep track of your login credentials in Chrome or Android, head to Google's and tap Go to Check passwords.

2. Tap Check Passwords and verify it's you.

3. Enter the password for your Google account.

4. After thinking for a bit, Google will display any issues it's found, including compromised, reused and weak passwords.

5. Next to each reused or weak password is a Change password button you can tap to pick a more secure one.
How to use Mozilla's Firefox Monitor 
Mozilla's free Firefox Monitor service helps you track which of your email addresses have been part of known data breaches. 

1. To start, head to the .

Mozilla's Firefox Monitor identified 4 breaches for hydraclubbioknikokex7njhwuahc2l67lfiz7z36md2jvopda7nchid.onion this email.

Screenshot by Clifford Colby/CNET

2. Enter an email address and tap Check for Breaches. If the email was part of a known breach since 2007, Monitor will show you which hack it was part of and what else may have been exposed.

3. Below a breach, tap More about this breach to see what was stolen and what steps Mozilla recommends, such as updating your password.

You can also sign up to have Monitor notify you if your email is involved in a future data breach. Monitor scans your email address against those found data breaches and alerts you if you were involved. 

1. Near the bottom of the , tap the Sign up for Alerts button.

2. If you need to, create a Firefox account.

3. Tap Sign in to see a breach summary for your email. 

4. At the bottom of the page, you can add additional email addresses to monitor. Mozilla will then send you an email at each address you add with a subject line "Firefox Monitor found your info in these breaches" when it finds that email address involved in a breach, along with instructions about what to do about following the breach.
How else to watch for fraud

Besides the tools from Mozilla and Google, you can take a few additional steps to watch for fraud.

Monitor your credit reports. To help you spot identity theft early, from each of the three major credit bureaus -- , and -- to check for unfamiliar activity, such as a new account you didn't open. (Note that .) You should also check your credit card and bank statements for unexpected charges and payments. Unexpected charges can be a sign that someone has access to your account.

Sign up for a . To take a more active hand in watching for fraud, sign up with a credit monitoring service that constantly monitors your credit report on major credit bureaus and . With a monitoring service, you can set fraud alerts that notifies you if someone is trying to use your identity to create credit. A -- or you could use a free service like the one from  that will watch for credit fraud but not ID fraud, such as someone trying to use your Social Security number.

For more on how to , see our guides on , the , and .
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