The Digital Security & Identity Protection Guide
SPECIFICATION
ADMIN-06
CATEGORYLife Admin
FOCUSNIST-aligned password and phishing-resistant MFA hygiene, phishing/smishing/vishing tactic recognition, and the FTC's contain-report-recover sequence for an actual account compromise.
BEST FORSomeone replacing outdated password and rotation habits, evaluating a specific suspicious message, or handling an active account compromise or identity theft right now.
METHODOLOGYNIST SP 800-63B password guidance · CISA phishing-resistant MFA hierarchy · FTC IdentityTheft.gov contain-report-recover framework
FORMAT.md + .txt
COMPATIBLE MODELS
+ more
+ more
SKILL LEVELBeginner
GENERAL ASSISTANT
I think someone hacked into my email — I'm getting login alerts from Vietnam and there are 3 sent emails I never wrote. What do I do right now?
Try changing your password and maybe turn on two-factor authentication to be safe.
ADMIN-06 — THE DIGITAL SECURITY & IDENTITY PROTECTION GUIDE
I think someone hacked into my email — I'm getting login alerts from Vietnam and there are 3 sent emails I never wrote. What do I do right now?
This is happening right now, so let's contain it first and sort out the rest after.
Change your email password immediately from a different device if you can, log out of any other active sessions the platform lets you kick out, and turn on phishing-resistant MFA — a passkey or authenticator app rather than just SMS, since SIM-swapping can defeat text codes.
Once that's locked down, check whether that same password is reused on any of your other important accounts, since password reuse is exactly how one phished account cascades into several — that's worth checking across every account, not just the 3 emails you noticed.
Then follow the FTC's contain-report-recover sequence: report the compromise to your email provider directly, and if you're in the US, file a report at IdentityTheft.gov — a credit freeze is generally the strongest next step if any financial account looks affected, and it doesn't hurt your 1 existing credit score to place one.
Change your email password immediately from a different device if you can, log out of any other active sessions the platform lets you kick out, and turn on phishing-resistant MFA — a passkey or authenticator app rather than just SMS, since SIM-swapping can defeat text codes.
Once that's locked down, check whether that same password is reused on any of your other important accounts, since password reuse is exactly how one phished account cascades into several — that's worth checking across every account, not just the 3 emails you noticed.
Then follow the FTC's contain-report-recover sequence: report the compromise to your email provider directly, and if you're in the US, file a report at IdentityTheft.gov — a credit freeze is generally the strongest next step if any financial account looks affected, and it doesn't hurt your 1 existing credit score to place one.
