Check If You Were Affected By The Massive Data Breach, And What To Do About It
A massive data breach we learned about last week, has a lot of us pretty much freaking out. This data breach includes leaked names, Social Security numbers, physical addresses, and more. Here’s everything you need to know about the breach, and what you need to do to protect yourself.
Tell Me About This Massive Data Breach
First, let’s recognize the fact that data breaches happen all the time. In fact, according to SearchLogistics, “on average a cyber attack is performed every 39 seconds worldwide. That means there is an average of 2244 cyber attacks per day.”
That said, this specific breach happened when data was reportedly stolen from National Public Data. They’re a company that does background checks. So the information that was suspected of being breached includes: names, email addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and mailing addresses.
How Do I Know If I’ve Been Affected?
A cybersecurity firm named Pentester has set something up that will let you see if your data was part of the breach. Go to npd.pentester.com and enter your first and last name, and the year you were born. If you’ve been affected, you’ll then see a list of breached accounts, including the last four digits of the leaked Social Security numbers.
Now What? How Do I Protect Myself?
If you’ve been affected by the massive data breach, here’s what it’s recommended that you do. National Public Data is advising people who may have been affected, to monitor their financial accounts closely. It’s also recommended that you set up credit monitoring with one of the three U.S. credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
The next step is to put a credit freeze on your accounts. You need to do this with all three credit bureaus. The credit freeze prevents new credit from being issued without your permission.
People affected by the massive data breach are also urged to put a credit freeze with Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Credit freezes are free on each of these, but keep in mind, if you do a credit LOCK, there is a monthly fee for that.
Good luck out there!
