Hey folks! I recently dealt with a pretty stressful security situation. A few days back, I think my PC got infected with a virus, and shortly after that, I started seeing weird stuff happening on my Facebook and Instagram accounts, plus an odd login attempt on my Reddit. It seems like someone might have gotten access to my info. To fix things, I did a full format of my PC and switched to my phone for all my security changes. I changed all my passwords to strong, unique ones with the help of a password manager, turned on two-factor authentication for all my important accounts like email, social media, banking, and cloud services, and removed my phone number from accounts where it wasn't needed. I also updated my recovery emails and backup codes, logged out from all sessions on major platforms, and secured my new Gmail account. I reported everything to platforms like Meta and Reddit, and I've been keeping an eye on my accounts for anything unusual, but so far, so good. I never logged into financial accounts from the infected PC and I enabled PESEL protection to avoid identity fraud since I'm in Poland. However, I'm still a bit anxious and wondering if I missed anything, especially with my phone number possibly being at risk. Should I get a new number, or is removing it enough? Also, could there still be access through any old sessions or cookies? I'm not a high-profile target or anything, but this experience has made me really paranoid, and I want to ensure I'm fully secure. Any extra advice? Am I worrying too much? Thanks for any help!
2 Answers
Changing your credentials and reauthenticating should safely kill any previous sessions, so they shouldn’t have access anymore. Good move on enabling two-factor authentication, too! I doubt you’ll need a new number unless you keep encountering issues. Stick with the removal for now.
You did a great job managing the situation! It’s true that if you had your browser synced with your Microsoft or Google account while you were logged in, those cookies could potentially be an issue if there's a malicious extension involved. Keep an eye out for any unusual behavior, just in case!
Yeah, my browser was synced with my Google account, but I didn’t notice any strange extensions. I think the whole mess happened because of a malware download I mistakenly allowed, but I acted quickly to clean it up afterward.