Are You Aware When You’re Part of a Data Breach?

How do you know if hackers have access to your email address, login credentials, or other personal data? Oftentimes, it’s through an organization or company with weak security surrounding their users’ or clients’ data. With access to your data, they can compromise/erase it or force payouts. Sometimes, it’s hard to be sure if a breach actually occurred in the first place or not! Whether it’s the login to your junk email account or to your cell phone account, any access in the wrong hands is bad news. This is the case for two main reasons: 1) People oftentimes use the same password for multiple sites, making them extremely vulnerable. 2) So much of people’s lives on the Internet are inter-connected, making themselves traceable across different sites.

So, what can you do to protect yourself from this threat? It’s simple:

1. Change your password(s) immediately if you hear of any breach.
2. Turn on two or multi-factor authentication everywhere possible!
3. Don’t use the same password across various services/vendors.
4. Make sure your passwords are long, random, and unique.

To be extra cautious, utilize a password manager/generator. We use Bitdefender internally! The site will ensure #2-4. Additionally, as our client, sign up for our Dark Web Monitoring! We get notified if clients’ login credentials were part of a data breach. We let the client know immediately, and they’ll be prompted to change their login credentials. This will ensure #1.