Do you know if your information has ever been stolen?
How do you know?
How might you know if your data was stolen in a future breach?
An easy to use website is designed to answer those questions.
Troy Hunt, the site owner, is a Microsoft regional director, web security expert and speaker. He created the website as a free resource to help you see if you’ve been put at risk by a data breach.
His site is “Have I been pwned?” The name “pwned” is old internet slang, originally a typo for the word “owned” by a computer game designer. Pwned means “defeated, dominated, or controlled.”
To date, information from 455 websites targeted by data breaches is on Have I been pwned? That’s 9,761,305,017 compromised accounts. My personal email has been part of 10 data breaches. My Lexington County Chronicle email address has been part of 1 data breach.
How can you find out if you’ve been compromised? Visit https://haveibeenpwned.com/ and enter your email address in the box at the top of the page. Then click the “pwned?” button. 
You’ll see how many data breaches your email address has been part of.
The site will give you 3 steps to help secure your privacy. The 3rd step invites you to subscribe to be notified if your email address is part of a future data breach.
Should you subscribe? I recommend it, even if your email hasn’t been compromised yet. After a data breach, it’s wise to change your passwords. The sooner you know about a breach and change your password, the safer your information will be.