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Another Data Breach? Don’t Get Data Breach Fatigue.

Spend a moment thinking about how many entities have your personal identifying information. You likely provided it to them for a legitimate need, like a loan or credit card application or a medical claim. These organizations have data on millions of individuals, and we trust them to maintain the security needed to protect it for us. If you add to the list of companies those that only have your name, email and home address, and credit card information, that’s essentially every website from which you’ve ever made an online purchase. 

The list just got a lot longer, and the security of small retail websites is typically more lax than that of large medical or financial ones. Hackers spend their lives searching for a way in, using sophisticated techniques to get through cyber security measures and steal valuable information from entities of all types.

Now, think about the last time you received an email that started something like this: “We are writing to you because of an incident involving access to information…” It probably wasn’t very long ago. We might even receive so many notifications or hear so many news reports regarding breaches that could affect us that we’re becoming apathetic. 

“It’s just part of life now,” we might say. Or “It’s a risk of being online in 2023.” However, we can do more than cross our fingers and hope ours isn’t the next information that gets sold to the highest bidder. 

A quick web search for “data breach” reveals countless recent hits detailing major data breaches. In fact, during June 2023, the Oregon DMV experienced a data breach and the information of more than 3.5 million Oregonians was compromised. You might have even been affected by a data breach or received a notification from a retailer or other organization that your personal information could have been compromised. What did you do next? Did you feel helpless, or did you know how to safeguard your data after the fact? 

The National Association of Attorneys General defines a data breach as the unlawful and unauthorized acquisition of personal information that compromises the security, confidentiality, or integrity of personal information. 

What is considered personal information depends on state law but typically includes an individual’s first name (or initial) and last name plus one or more of the following: 

One of the biggest risks following a data breach is that scammers could use your stolen personal information to open a loan or a line of credit in your name, potentially damaging your credit score or leaving you to pay for the fraudulent charges. 

This article from IBM summarizes data breach research from 2022, stating that the average data breach cost the affected U.S. company $9.44 million last year. While losses to companies are huge, potential losses to individuals are not to be ignored. When a data breach leads to identity theft, the cost can be staggering. Therefore, it is important that you know what to do when (not if) you receive a data breach notification and also that you take steps to help protect yourself as much as possible in the future. 

Immediately after receiving a data breach notification in your inbox or hearing about a retailer breach that might affect you, it’s important that you act quickly to take a few precautionary steps. 

To help protect yourself in the case of future data breaches, the following actions can help you save time and money for the inevitable next time: 

Next time you receive a notification about a possible data breach, follow the steps above, both to put a stop to harm that may have already begun and to make it much more difficult for them to impact you in the future.