How to find out if I was in a data breach?

There are a few reliable ways to check yourself. The most popular service is Have I Been Pwned - you enter your email or phone number there and see what breaches it's been part of. The site works with databases of major hacks and constantly updates them. It's not a Russian service, but it checks data from all over the world, including Russian companies. I check it myself from time to time, especially when I hear about new breaches - it puts my mind at ease.

The second option is to use Yandex.Passport, which also has a checking function. Try logging into your account and looking in the security section - sometimes Yandex warns you that your data might have leaked. Plus there are specialized Russian services like 2fa.ru that monitor breaches on Russian websites.

If you find out you're caught up in a breach, I'd recommend changing your password on that service and on other sites where you use similar passwords. By 2026 it's already a must - use different passwords everywhere. If your phone number or email is in the breach, you can enable two-factor authentication wherever it's available. I check myself after every breach news and update passwords on critical accounts - it takes about twenty minutes, but then I sleep better.

The most reliable way is to check your email on the Have I Been Pwned website - they've got info on most of the known breaches. You can also check your phone number there or search for your email through Yandex, sometimes data ends up in public access. If you find something - change your passwords on those services and enable two-factor authentication if it's available. Usually that's enough to cover your bases.

I checked a couple of times when I heard about data breaches. The most reliable way is the haveibeenpwned.com site, where you can enter your email and see if it ended up in any known databases. True, it's mostly foreign breaches there, but sometimes Russian ones pop up too. You enter your email, hit enter and check the results. If something's found, it'll show which breach it's from and when it happened.

For Russian services there are also sites like 2fa.ru, where you can check too. And sometimes it just helps to google your email in quotes like "myemail@mail.ru" - if a database leaked somewhere publicly, it might show up in search results. Though that's more likely to help you find something from really old breaches.

If you do find yourself in a breach, I'd recommend changing your password on that service first and foremost, and if you're using the same password everywhere (which you shouldn't be doing, by the way), then change it on other services too. And check active sessions in your email, maybe someone already tried to get in. By 2026 everyone knows about two-factor auth, but if you haven't enabled it on important services yet - now's the time to do it.