Urgent recovery guide
After an account takeover
Work from a trusted device. Secure the account that controls recovery first, then protect every connected account that shared a password or trusted session.
Immediate danger or financial loss? Contact the financial institution through its official app or the number on the back of the card. For threats to personal safety, contact local emergency services.
Contain the access
- Use the provider’s official recovery flow. Do not pay anyone who contacts you claiming they can recover the account.
- Change the password to a new, unique one. If it was reused, change those accounts too—starting with email, banking, cloud storage, and mobile carrier.
- Sign out other sessions and revoke unknown devices. Remove unrecognized app passwords, OAuth apps, passkeys, and security keys.
- Repair recovery settings. Check recovery email, phone, forwarding, filters, and delegated access.
- Turn on strong MFA and save backup codes. Store codes somewhere separate from the device used to sign in.
- Tell affected contacts. Warn them not to trust recent messages, payment requests, or links from the compromised account.
Preserve useful evidence
Keep provider alerts, dates, transaction references, and screenshots of unauthorized changes. Do not preserve passwords, recovery codes, or full identity documents in an ordinary note.
Prepare before the next emergency
Verify recovery methods quarterly, keep unique passwords in a password manager, use automatic updates, and store backup codes offline or in a well-protected vault.
Limits
HackProof is educational and does not monitor accounts, restore access, investigate attackers, or provide professional incident-response, legal, credit, or financial services.