This page deals with how to respond to an account compromise, identity theft, or a personal computer compromise for a personally owned resource. For a compromise of a Georgia Tech owned resource, please see the GT Incident Response Process.
Personal Computer Account Compromise
- A password change will likely prevent the attacker from further access to your account, but may not stop ongoing activity in the same session.
- Additionally, consider resetting any password that is the same as the compromised account password and any account that uses a compromised email account for reset information.
- If you send banking information to the compromised email, monitor that bank for fraudulent charges.
- If you believe your GT account has been compromised you should change your password immediately and report the incident person to person, or via a different, non-compromised, account.
Identity Theft
If you are the victim of identity theft or bank account compromise please follow the steps outlined by the FTC. In short, notify the bank, place a credit freeze, report to the FTC, and file a police report. Additionally, as above if you suspect your password was used change your password and any site where you re-used that password.
Device Compromise
If a personal device is compromised the best course of action is to:
- Reformat the computer with a fresh operating system from install media (e.g. DVD)
- Patch the operating system
- Reinstall files and documents, but not programs, from backup
- Change the password on any account accessed by this computer
If it is a personal device but contains Category 3 or higher GT Institute data please also report the incident.
As stated above, if a Georgia Tech computer is compromised please follow the GT Incident Response Process.