Best Tips To Recover Your Hacked Account
The First Line of Defense
Secure hardware prevents unauthorized users from interfering, alter, or steal data from your device. It is a first line of defense that plays a key role in restricting attackers from exploiting software vulnerabilities. If the foundation of the software security frontline is not intact then the following layers are also likely to fall one by one. Secure hardware is crucial to creating a healthy environment for the software programs to run without any error.
Block Your Debit and Credit Card
The very next thing you need to do is block your debit and credit card at once. It will prevent criminals from generating new pins using your personal details. More importantly, it will disable credit cards for making any type of payment and online transactions. As a result, hackers won’t be able to use your credit cards for unauthorized payments. To block your debit and credit cards, you can speak to the bank’s customer support representative or visit the official website to learn how to block your credit card.
Change the Net Banking Password
Cybercriminals can access your online banking, but they cannot make any payment or transfer money to any other bank without putting in the net banking password. Hence, changing your net banking password as quickly as possible is highly recommended. When resetting the password, make sure to use a long, unique, and complex password with a combination of letters, numbers, and special signs. Make sure not to use any common passwords such as your name, home address, office name, and address, Etc. Hackers can guess such passwords easily and break into your accounts. Hence, change your net banking passwords and make them unique, long, and strong.
Check Your Account Recovery Options
Every bank provides multiple methods that help you recover a hacked bank account. So, check your bank recovery options. Make sure your phone number and email address are correct and set as the recovery options. Using these two options, you can recover your hacked bank account and prevent hackers from making unauthorized transactions.
Update Your Security Questions
Online banking uses security questions to help users secure online banking access. You should keep these questions up to date to prevent unauthorized access to your online bank features. It can help you recover your hacked bank account and block cybercriminals from doing any damage to you.
Secure Your Linked Apps
If your Google and Gmail apps are linked to the bank, change their passwords too. If you are using any app connected to your online banking make sure to disconnect them and change all the passwords. Hackers can access your linked accounts using your personal details. So, securing your linked accounts and apps will prevent black hats from accessing them and doing any malicious activity.
Check Account Activities
Now, you need to check for unauthorized activity in your bank. It includes login history, unauthorized payments, password change attempts, and device use. Use the appropriate options to log out of all the devices in this situation. Banks provide options to log out of all the devices and change your login passwords. You can use the provided option to log out of all the devices to prevent all the illegal activities on your bank.
Along with this, you should set up alerts for all the activities. You will get instant alerts if anyone tries to access your online banking. Using this, you can take immediate action to block all the activities to secure your banking transactions.
Get New Debit and Credit Cards
After blocking the old debit and credit cards, apply for the new cards. Reset the net PINs for both the cards. It will automatically disqualify the old card PINs for making transactions. With these new cards, you can start all your banking anew. The details hackers stole will become null and void in the process.
Use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
You should always use a two-factor authentication service to protect your online banking from illegal access and hackers. In two-factor authentication, if the cyberpunk stole your primary credentials, they still won’t be able to access your account due to 2FA. A second authentication is required to confirm access to the bank. Two-factor authentication includes elements such as OTP, email confirmation, and a phone call mentioning the confirmation code. Two-factor authentication helps you recover a hacked bank account if your primary credentials are stolen.
Inform Your Contacts
You should inform your contacts that your online banking has been compromised. Notify them not to deposit or transfer any money to your hacked bank account. You can ask them to pay the money in cash or give any other online platform to receive the payments. It will save you from locking all the money in your compromised bank.
Reinstall Your Operating System
You should reinstall your operating system, or factory reset the device to disable the deadly cyber viruses. Black hats use malicious programs to access your devices and steal confidential data from them. You should reinstall your operating system or factory reset the device to set it back to the previous condition. It prevents the malware from running any malicious activity on your device.
Remove Malware From Your Device
Cyberattacks and malware infiltration are the most common methods cybercriminals use to steal personal information. They use spyware, browser hijackers, and a combination of viruses to infiltrate a PC and steal its important details. They track your online activities, use fake websites to steal your credentials and record your keyloggers to learn about your important details.
Hence, keeping your device clean of all the malicious programs is highly essential to prevent hackers from hacking your bank account. You can install robust antivirus software on your device to remove malware and virus infections from it.
What are the Signs Your Bank Account is Hacked?
Hackers use various tools and tactics to hack your online banking channels. They can use your personal details to do these suspicious activities. During these activities, you will receive unusual signs and reports. These signs signify suspicious activities of hackers to hijack your online banking. Common signs confirm that someone is trying to access your bank illegally.
- Login alerts, unauthorized transactions, messages, and threat notifications.
- Security alerts, warning messages, and password change requests are key signs of security breaches.
- Missing emails, OTP for unknown online activities, and calls indicate potential hacking activities.
- If you cannot log in to your online banking account due to unknown password changes, it is a sign of hacking.
- Changed security questions, phone numbers, email addresses, and linked accounts are possible indicators of harmful cyber activities.
- Money is missing from your bank; unauthorized accounts linked to your online banking are red flags you need to pay attention to.
- Unexpected charges and fee payments for unknown activities are strong signs of a compromised bank account.
- If your online banking is blocked and you cannot access or log into it, you should consider this. It can be the doing of hackers.
How to Prevent Hacking Your Bank Accounts?
Securing your online payment gateways is essential from hackers in this ever-evolving digital age. You must stay alert and utilize innovative security strategies to secure your online accounts. Here are some proven and practical tips to prevent hacking your bank accounts and make safe online payments:
Secure Your Financial Details
You should take extra care to keep all your financial details confidential. Do not reveal your card details, SSN, bank passwords, user details, or any associated information to anyone. Make all your online and offline transactions in a secretive way. Erase all your old cards and bank documents using magnetic strips and shredders when you no longer need them.
Secure Your PIN
Do not share your PIN, OTP, password, and transaction ID with anyone. Make sure to keep all the PINs and passwords confidential. Do not write them down on your bank documents and behind your debit or credit cards. Memorize them verbatim to prevent hackers from misusing them to make unauthorized payments.
Avoid Suspicious Links
You should never use links attached to emails, messages, and notification texts to log in and access your online banking. Black hats use malicious links to steal your user ID and password to log in to online banking. You should avoid these suspicious links to log in to your accounts. Instead, you should use official portals to access your bank account.
Use Strong Passwords
You should use long, unique, and complex passwords to secure your online banking gateways. Do not use a single password to secure multiple access points. Always create unique passcodes for each portal. It will prevent hackers from compromising all the gateways at the same time. Also, never share your passwords with anyone
Use Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication is one of the best ways to secure your sensitive financial gateways. It prevents hackers from hacking your account directly. If they bypass the first obstacle, they will not be able to bypass the second one, which includes 2FA verification.
Watch Out for Bogus Websites
Black hats create fake websites that have the same look and feel as the original website. When you visit these websites, they ask you to fill out the user ID and password to access the main dashboards. As soon as you put the information in the access portal, all your details will go into the hands of cybercriminals. Hence, it is essential to ensure you are using the right website.
Check Security Settings
You should check all the online security settings of your online bank account, social media channels, internet browser, and Google account. Activate all the security settings to fortify your online gateways.
