Large Data Breaches. What to Do if Your Data Is Stolen and How to Protect Yourself in Advance?

Large corporations are increasingly targeted by cyberattacks. One of the last massive data breaches was in T-mobile in August 2021. As a result of this cyberattack, personal data such as names, SSN, addresses, date of birth, phone numbers, and driver license information of more than 50 million current and former customers were obtained. In response, T-mobile offers two years of free identity insurance to affected customers.

Data breaches are a common situation for big companies such as T-mobile, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. The number of personal data leaks is growing every year. According to IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021, 20% share of breaches initially caused by compromised credentials. That is why it is so important to take proactive steps to protect your online identity as much as possible.

Still, what to do if your data is stolen?

• Lock your credit report. The first step is to immediately notify about your credit data breach to your financial institution. Discuss and accept possible scenarios for resolving the situation, whether it is changing account numbers, canceling fraudulent payments, freezing a card, and setting up notifications of fraudulent activities.
• Change and complicate all of your passwords. You can do it very easily by using a password manager. There are many free password generators available now for creating and storing your logins. Don’t be lazy to use different complex passwords for each of your accounts, because this will reduce harm and the risk of getting malicious actors into your devices.
• Track suspicious activity and attempts to access your accounts. After changing your passwords, remember to track threatening activity in your accounts. Monitor security notifications, account login history and apply security hints to strengthen the protection of your sensitive data.
• Get rid of old accounts. The more your accounts are stored on the Internet, the higher the possibility of hacking and theft of your data. Try to remember the accounts you no longer use and delete them. You can also find your old accounts by special keywords in your email or by typing your name into search engines.

Take these actions to protect your sensitive data in advance:

• Don’t save on your security. For example, you can choose a profitable solution from data security companies and do a security audit of all of your different accounts regularly.
• Take care of your data protection. It means trying to keep your system as secure as possible on a regular basis with software updates, monitoring suspicious activity notifications, security monitoring, and monitoring of your data flow to detect any threatening activity before it becomes a real problem. Take proactive steps in advance and apply all-round security software on all your devices.
• Two-factor authentication as an additional layer of security. Use two-factor authentication wherever it is available. 2FA will help you reduce the possibility of an unauthorized user logging into your accounts and the risk of disclosing your personal information. With 2FA, the risk of fraudulent access to your data is limited, as before obtaining access to the system users you are properly authenticated by a double verification method. Find out more about DataSunrise 2FA in action.
• Stay up-to-date. Since there are a lot of data breaches every day, it is difficult to know exactly which breaches you’ve been a part of. Using the site Have I Been Pwned, you can easily check out if your email or phone number has been compromised and take security measures to protect yourself quickly. In addition, if you find your data breached, keep an eye on a company’s news. Many large corporations provide free security tools or insurance to protect your sensitive information after a data breach.

Remember that all information leaked to third parties can be used for a large number of malicious actions or even combined with other data leaks to rapidly steal your PII data. Follow these security tips and stay protected with DataSunrise data and database software. Discover high-performance security solutions for the 24/7 safety of your business.