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.

As mentioned above, the best thing to do is check your email on Have I Been Pwned - they've got information about most known data breaches. You can also check your phone number there, or search for your email through Yandex search - sometimes data ends up in the public domain.

If you find anything - change your passwords on those services and enable two-factor authentication if it's available. Usually that's enough to cover yourself.

I checked myself a couple of times when I heard about data breaches. I used the same haveibeenpwned.com that was already recommended here - you can enter your email and see if it's been in any known databases. True, it's mostly foreign breaches there, but sometimes Russian ones show up too. You enter your email, hit enter and see the results. If something's found, it'll show which breach it came from and when it happened.

For Russian services there are also sites like 2fa.ru, you can check there too. And you can just sometimes 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 of all, and if you use the same password everywhere (which you shouldn't, by the way), then change it on other services too. And check active sessions in your email, someone might've already tried to get in. In 2026 everyone already knows about two-factor authentication, but if you haven't enabled it on important services yet - now's the time to do it.

The easiest thing is to just type your email or phone number into haveibeenpwned.com and you'll immediately see which databases it ended up in - they've really got a lot of info collected there. While you're at it, it makes sense to check your passwords on the same site if you remember which ones you used on different services, because those are often what gets leaked, and if you're using the same password across multiple accounts, the risk is higher.

For Russian services, you can check out local projects like 2ip.ru or similar ones - they're more focused on breaches of Russian platforms specifically. After checking, the main thing is to change your passwords on critical accounts (email, bank, social media) to new ones if you see that your data showed up in some leak.

I'd second haveibeenpwned, but I'll add: if you're worried specifically about Russian services, it makes sense to change passwords on your most important accounts periodically (email, social media, bank) even if you haven't found anything suspicious 😅 Data breaches often surface with a delay, and information can circulate on the dark web without you knowing. Whenever I hear about a major hack in the news, I just update my key passwords - easier to sleep soundly that way.