Mozilla Tool Can Check if You Are Pwned — Firefox Monitor

“Pwn” or “Pwned” is pretty much a common word we see online these days.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word as:

‘Pwn’ is a lot like the sense of ‘own’ that means “to have power or mastery over (someone).” It has also been used to describe the act of gaining illegal access to something.

Data breaches, just like the one Facebook had earlier today (MNL time), had become rampant these past few months. Critical information such as (but not limited to) your username and password are being “hacked” from websites day in and day out. Being citizens of the Internet, we face this as a fact that we encounter day-to-day.

Earlier this week, Mozilla launched a free service that will notify people when they have been part of a data breach. Called Firefox Monitor, will tell you if your email address appears on databases of known breaches. The service was developed in partnership with Troy Hunt’s “Have I Been Pwned”.

As part of our promise with all of our products and services, Mozilla will protect your email address when it is scanned. The technical details of how these service works is documented here.

Do yourself a favor, check if your email address has been pwned. If it is, please change your email password as soon as possible.