Not Pwned

First – some backstory.

The website haveibeenpwned.com is a great resource, letting you know if your email (and any personal information) has been included in security breach. Run by Troy Hunt, the site provides a great public service… and I’d highly recommend signing up to get notified.

To clarify: you’re not really “signing up” for anything. You’re just providing your email address, and if a data breach occurs that includes that email… you’ll be notified. You’re not submitting any passwords, or anything like that. This is just a notification service, when data breaches happen and that breach includes some part of your account info.

The larger concern is that if you re-use your email/passwords across multiple sites, a breach on Website A means that someone could potentially use that information to log into Website B.

A big thing to do, if you haven’t done so yet, is to use a password manager. I use 1Password, and cannot recommend it enough. While it won’t protect you from data breaches, it will help ensure that any breaches will be contained to just one site.

So that’s the backstory. Today in my Inbox I got a notification that there was a data breach where my email was found. Turns out 5.8 million user records from RedDoorz was found online, in 2020.

It seemed a little odd to me at first, as I didn’t recognize the name. I saw it was a hotel/hospitality company, so I thought maybe it was some rewards program I had signed up for while staying at a hotel.

Digging a little more, RedDoorz looks to be based in Singapore. And they operate mostly in Southeast Asia.

So it was then that I realized: someone else was using my email account, thinking it was their email account. Presumably overseas somewhere. This happens with some frequency, as I tend to get a lot of email meant for other people named Felix Jung.

So hey there, Felix Jung in Southeast Asia. I hope you’re using some kind of password manager, and aren’t re-using whatever password you used, for your RedDoorz account. And I’m hoping you pay more attention to your passwords than you do to your actual email addresses. Good luck, guy.

Related:
This is Not the Felix Jung You Are Looking For
Felix Jung, 20×2 Chicago: Where Are We?
I’m Now an Expert on My Password Journal

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