Regularly checking your credit reports or enlisting the help of an identity theft protection service can help spot some problems as they arise. But often stolen information doesn’t appear for sale on the dark web until months or years after a data breach. That might be easy to spot and take care of. You might detect suspicious charges on a credit account soon afterward. Here’s the thing: If your personal information is stolen, you could face the consequences in the short or long term. This might include changing passwords on your accounts, freezing your credit reports, and considering an identity theft protection service to help manage any fallout. When a security breach happens, it’s important to know what personal data was exposed and what you should do to help protect yourself. Read privacy policies and seek assurances that your data will be protected. Consider the tradeoffs of providing your personal data to organizations, computer app makers, and social media platforms. Guard key identifiers like your Social Security Number. Help protect it by sharing as little as possible. Helping to defend yourself against a security breach boils down to taking three steps - one before, one during, and one after a breach occurs. Credit freezes, credit monitoring, and identity theft protection services can help you keep track of your information. Regularly check your credit reports to make sure an imposter hasn’t opened credit cards, loans, or other accounts in your name. Monitor online and monthly financial account statements to make sure the transactions are legitimate. Companies sometimes set up a website to keep consumers informed. If you do business with a company that’s had a data breach, find out what information was taken and how it could affect you. Data breaches are the most common, but not all security incidents concern data theft. Updates sometimes contain patches for security vulnerabilities. Incidents such as DDoS, Bitcoin mining etc. Always update your computers and mobile devices with the latest versions of operating systems and applications. Ask about providing a different form of identification. Provide your SSN only when it’s absolutely required. It indicates a secure, encrypted connection. If one account is compromised, cybercriminals won’t be able to easily access your other accounts. Use different passwords on different accounts.That means using uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as non-sequential numbers and special characters. But you can do some things to help protect yourself before and after a breach occurs. There’s not much you can do to prevent a security breach at any of those places.
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