# Hacked email account

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacked-email-account/680901>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 9, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacked-email-account/680901 "2014-02-09T17:35:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dauerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c2a13f/32.png) [@dauerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dauerbach)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacked-email-account/680901/1 "2014-02-09T17:35:13Z")

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I am fairly certain that my work email account has been hacked. Now I would like to find out who was doing that. Is it likely that I will be able to track down this person if I contact the IT department. Is it likely that they have a log of the IP address of everyone who accesses my email? Unless I have a reasonable expectation of success in tracking the person down I do not want to let them know that I screwed up.

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**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacked-email-account/680901/2 "2014-02-09T20:32:36Z")

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Man up - your IT department have to know about the problem so they can take appropriate measures, check your PC for malware, tighten security and a bunch of other remedial actions.

Your desire to cover your own arse is pretty small beer compared to protecting the company assets and customer data.

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**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacked-email-account/680901/3 "2014-02-09T21:12:06Z")

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Yes, it’s very likely. Also what si\_blakely said.

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**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacked-email-account/680901/4 "2014-02-09T22:49:17Z")

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While I can’t think of what way you think you screwed up by being the victim of hacking, if your IT dept is like others I’ve worked with, they’ve probably seen FAR worse.

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**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hacked-email-account/680901/5 "2014-02-10T04:13:07Z")

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Go into your e-mail account and change the password. Ssy you lost your password, and follow the security steps to recover it. Now, the hacker doesn’t know your password anymore.