Author Topic: Password Leak - No Idea What To Do  (Read 3918 times)

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Offline Interista

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Password Leak - No Idea What To Do
« on: July 26, 2019, 02:54:42 PM »
I got an email from Avast saying my email address and a password had leaked. It told me it didn't know which account the leak related to so I should change all my passwords relating to that account. The problem is my laptop died a few days ago and I've lost my passwords. My passwords were saved and synched to the cloud via Avast Passwords but I can't find the original email which gives me the code to restore them to my phone. First problem is I was using a very strong password for my email (as with all my important accounts) which would be impossible to remember without using Avast Passwords. Subsequently, Google is being awkward about changing the email password (despite receiving and entering verification codes received by phone and backup email it still wants a few days to verify the account is mine despite being signed into it on my phone). I also cannot remember which accounts use my email address as my username (very few financial ones do as I have other email addresses which I use solely for financial accounts except for a couple which I opened a few years ago). Subsequently, I have no idea what to do to secure this leak. Also, as Avast says the leak is in encrypted format it doesn't tell me what the password which has leaked is (I have a few leaks over the last couple of years but they're all very simple passwords which I used years ago before I started to be a bit more cautious). The biggest problem as I see it is (a)I can't remember whether there is any financial account which uses the leaked email as its username - I don't think there is though but can't be sure; (b)I have to wait for Google to get around to verifying my account before I can change the password - this is a bigger problem as this email address is a back-up for the others mentioned above (I realise now it shouldn't be); (c)I don't have access to my passwords which were lost when my laptop died as I don't have the original Avast Passwords verification code.

Hopefully it is just a crappy password from years ago or from an account I'm not so concerned about (like a fan forum) but as Avast says it's an encrypted password I'm particularly concerned as (a)encrypted sounds like it's a solid password not a forum one and (b)I can't actually see the password to see whether it's one worth worrying about or if I can chill.

Edit: I've managed to get as far as synching to my phone using my Avast account but it asks me to allow the synch on another device. The laptop is dead though so I can't and as I was using a complex password for Avast which was stored in Avast passwords for Avast I can't remember the old password either.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2019, 03:04:37 PM by Interista »

Offline Asyn

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Re: Password Leak - No Idea What To Do
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2019, 05:42:59 AM »
Hopefully it is just a crappy password from years ago or from an account I'm not so concerned about (like a fan forum) but as Avast says it's an encrypted password I'm particularly concerned as (a)encrypted sounds like it's a solid password not a forum one and (b)I can't actually see the password to see whether it's one worth worrying about or if I can chill.
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