How One Of Our Accounts Getting Hacked Almost Ruined Everything
If you haven't changed the password to all of your subscription based services in a while, you may want to. Soon. That includes your email.
My wife and I are learning the hard way.
Netflix Was The First Thing We Noticed
The first thing my wife noticed was that her Netflix account had been compromised. She wasn't able to connect to her account when she went to log on and presumably watch Good Witch. When she tried logging in, she was notified that there was no account with that email address.
It was only the beginning.
Venmo, Spotify, And Even Playstation Network Were All Compromised
Soon, notifications began pouring in from Venmo, Spotify, and even Playstation Network that attempts to log in or change a password had been made.
When it came to Venmo, my wife received an avalanche of failed log-in attempt notifications. Almost 30 attempts were made in a matter of minutes.
How Did Her Account Info Get Leaked?
Talking with support at Netflix, they believed that it all started with my wife's Yahoo! account. With access to her email account, they were able to see what services she was subscribed to, and try to access those services.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the end goal in all of this would be cash and credit card info attached to those accounts.
How Can You Protect Yourself?
One easy way to make sure you're protected is to set up 2 factor authentication. That's what saved my wife's Venmo account. Also, if at all possible, don't use your credit card info when signing up for things.
Her Playstation Network account was attached to a gift card instead of a credit card. That gift card has a zero balance on it, so there's no funds to access there and no credit card info.
The Spotify account that was accessed was a free account with no credit card on file.
Change Your Passwords, And Often
It's a pain in the neck when you get that email from the company IT department telling you to change your password, but here's a good lesson in why they do it. If you're consistently changing your passwords, it's a lot harder for bad actors to get access to personal information.
Also, everything was attached to one email address. If at all possible, try and spread things out across multiple email addresses. This is how we avoided who ever is behind this hack accessing even more information.
My wife believes it all started with a purchase she made recently online from an online retailer she had never used before.