Janice R. Andrews
LONDON: Data breaches, like the one that involved AT&T customers recently, are happening virtually every day. Our personal information, including phone numbers, birthdates, email addresses, and even passcodes, is more susceptible to theft or unintentional disclosure as more and more of our lives are conducted online. Cybercriminals can exploit stolen data from malicious breaches to target individuals with phishing messages or by obtaining credit cards or loans in their names—a prevalent and dangerous kind of identity theft.
In the event that a data breach exposes your personal information, take the following crucial precautions to keep yourself safe:
Take Care
There is no federal law in the US requiring businesses to notify individuals of data breaches. However, Oren Arar, vice president of consumer privacy at cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes, says that they typically notify impacted customers and offer identity protection services. In the European Union, where privacy standards mandate the reporting of specific kinds of breaches, things are better.
Cybersecurity experts encourage individuals to stay vigilant even after a vulnerability has been made public. Watch out for attempts at social engineering, such as phishing, which take the form of emails or phone calls posing as coming from the compromised company or someone providing assistance. To find out if the company or organization can verify it, get in touch with them via their official website, mobile app, or social media accounts. Never click on links or provide your contact information in messages you get.
Additionally, check out identitytheft.gov, the website maintained by the Federal Trade Commission that offers comprehensive guidance on recovering from a variety of identity theft circumstances.
Modify Your Login
The first thing you should do if your data has been compromised is to reset the password for the relevant account. Make sure your password is strong and contains both letters and digits. The more characters, the better; some experts advise using 16 characters. A USB authenticator key must be inserted into your device or a code given by text message in order to enable multi-factor authentication, which adds an additional degree of security.
Change it right away if you’ve been logging into several websites or online accounts with the same or identical login details. Hackers can simply access all of your accounts by trying your stolen password on other accounts. If you find it too difficult to remember all of your login information, you might want to use a password manager.
“Your identity or money may not have been stolen by someone just because your information appears in a breach. Arar clarified, “But it does indicate you’re at risk.” Because of this, it’s a good idea to use multi-factor authentication, keep an eye out for new accounts on your credit report, change any passwords that are compromised, and have a separate “junk” email for less significant sign-ups.
Continue to Watch
There are many data breaches, and it can be challenging to monitor them with individual notifications. Online resources exist such as Have I Been Pwned, a free website that indicates whether or not a data breach has affected your email address. Similar work is done by Malwarebytes’ Digital Footprint Portal, which also verifies whether your information has been uploaded to the dark web.
According to Keeper Security CEO Darren Guccione, “cybercriminals gather as much data as they can so they can sell it on the dark web when public data breaches occur.” BreachWatch, a program provided by Keeper Security, searches the dark web to see if any of your personal information appears there.
Inform Your Credit Agencies and Bank
Notify your bank or credit card company if your card payment numbers were compromised. Inform them that there is a chance of fraud with your card and request that they notify you of any unusual activity. Most likely, a replacement card will be issued right away. You can lock an account and stop making purchases using some credit card and banking apc ps.
Additionally, you can inform Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, the credit agencies. They can issue a fraud alert, which is a notice attached to your credit record urging lenders to get in touch with you before lending money, or freeze your credit, which limits access to your credit report and makes it difficult to open new accounts.
Exercise Extra Caution Following Telco Hacks
Customers are at risk of having their SIM cards switched or their phone numbers stolen when telephone corporations are involved in security breaches, such as the AT&T case. The compromised number might then be used by thieves to send text messages to other accounts that require that number for multi-factor verification.
AT&T suggests creating a special passcode required to stop major account changes, such moving phone numbers to a different carrier, in order to lessen that danger. Additionally, remove any emails containing personal information, bank statements, and phone bills from your account. In this manner, information that evades security checks is not accessible to hackers who manage to access your mailbox.
You can safeguard yourself and reduce the dangers connected with data breaches by being watchful and adopting proactive measures.
