What to do if your device or account is hacked

Official updatesLU-Alert · RTL, 100.7 · 112

Do this now

Disconnect the affected device from the internet: switch off its Wi-Fi or unplug the cable. Do not wipe or delete anything yet; messages, emails and screenshots are your evidence.
Protect your money first. If card details or bank codes may be exposed, call your bank straight away, and the card operator named on your card (in Luxembourg usually Worldline), to block the cards.
Change your passwords from a device you trust, starting with your email and your bank. Sign out every device you do not recognise and switch on two-step login.
Tell your contacts that your account or number was hacked, so they ignore messages that seem to come from you.
Report it to the national cyber-fraud help service (cyberfraud.lu), tell your bank, and make a police report if money or documents were taken. Keep the reference numbers.
If banks, phone networks or public services are also down, follow LU-Alert and the radio, and use cash. See Cards and cash machines down.
Any message about the attack that asks for money, codes or documents is a scam.

Use a long, unique password for every account and let a password manager remember them. Switch on two-step login wherever it exists, especially for email, banking and government services.
Turn on automatic updates on phones, computers and the router, and keep antivirus on. Change the default password on every new device.
Lock every device with a PIN, a password or your fingerprint. Give apps only the permissions they need.
Have more than one way to log in to your bank and to public services, so one lost phone or card does not lock you out.

Copy your photos, documents and contacts to an external drive, and keep it unplugged when not in use. Update the backup when you check your kit, Status: Verified.
Keep paper copies of the numbers you would need: your bank's card-blocking line, your insurer, your doctor, the people you would call. Keep them with your household plan.

Clean the device before you reconnect it: run a full antivirus scan, or reset it and restore from a backup made before the attack.
Go through every account once more: change the passwords you skipped in the rush, and check that the recovery email and phone number are still yours.
Watch your bank statements and accounts for several weeks, and report any charge you do not recognise at once.
If a work device or account was involved, tell the IT contact at work the same day.

Agree that children never share passwords, never pay online and never send photos of themselves or of documents without asking you first. BEE SECURE, the national service for safer internet use, has material for families.

When banks, networks or the power are down, cards and cash machines may fail. Keep cash at home: Status: Verified per adult and Status: Verified per child.
Official information comes through LU-Alert, the radio and official websites. See Alerts and sirens.