Monitoring Your Credit: What To Do if Your Info Is Exposed in a Data Breach

Hopefully, you’ll never have to ask what to do if your info is exposed in a data breach, but in today’s digital age, data breaches have become all too common. Cyberattacks on organizations can expose sensitive personal information, leaving individuals vulnerable to identity theft, fraud, and other security risks. 

In 2022, over 422 million individuals were affected by data compromises. The silver lining? The more commonplace data breaches become, the more effectively we know how to fight them, how to respond to them, and how to help prevent them. 

What Is a Data Breach?

Forbes contributor Nicole Martin puts it plainly: “A data breach occurs when there is an unauthorized entry point into a corporation’s database that allows cyber hackers to access customer data such as passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, banking information, driver’s license numbers, medical records, and other sensitive information.” 

If I didn’t share all my data with the company, how is it exposed?

Remember that not every data breach exposes all your information. Hackers and other bad actors can only access the information you’ve provided to the breached company, which is often a retail corporation or a second-party data source such as a credit bureau. Typically, the company that is the victim of the breach will contact you if your information has been exposed, as not all breaches affect all customers.  

How a Data Breach Affects You

In most cases, hackers carry out data breaches for two reasons: identity theft and fraud. As for how that affects you, it’s possible that it might not have an impact at all. But as Experian’s Rod Griffin tells U.S. News and World Report, “That’s a best-case scenario.”

On the other hand, let’s say your credit card number was stolen. Your card could be used for purchases or withdrawals without your consent. Depending on the information accessed, the criminal might use your personal information to open a new credit account in your name. These are forms of identity fraud and identity theft, and they can occur any time following the breach, from hours after to years after.

What About Fraud Alerts?

A fraud alert, as Equifax puts it, is essentially a handy sort of red flag on your credit report. More specifically, it’s a notice on your credit report that alerts potential creditors that you may have been the victim of financial fraud, such as identity theft resulting from a data breach. A fraud alert can help protect you by encouraging creditors to take extra steps to verify your identity before giving you credit.  

Like the Federal Trade Commission notes, fraud alerts don’t cost a thing, and you can place them on your credit report by contacting any of the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion). Even if you go through just one bureau, the alert will apply to all your credit reports for one year unless you request its removal before that time.

What You Can Do

Fraud alerts are certainly a helpful response to personal data breaches, but they’re not the end of the line — in terms of the first steps, here’s what to do if your information was exposed in a data breach: 

• If the breached company doesn’t contact you first, contact them to find out exactly what information has been compromised. 
• Change your password on sites associated with the breach and anywhere else you’ve used it. Get in the habit of using complex passwords unique to each website or account. Password aggregator software can be a big help here.
• Enable multi-factor authentication for your logins. Consumer Reports recommends using authentication apps rather than text-based MFA wherever available.
• If you have reason to believe that fraud is at play, request a credit freeze from each of the three credit bureaus. If the freeze is active, no one can open a new credit account with your credentials. You can temporarily or permanently lift the freeze by contacting each bureau. 

As is often the case, prevention is the best method for dealing with data breaches. In addition to strong, varied passwords and solid cybersecurity software, be sure to regularly delete accounts you don’t use to reduce the availability of personal information floating around any given company’s servers. On the prevention front, credit monitoring is a vital tool for keeping track of any suspicious activity as it arises, allowing you to take proactive action. We can help.

References:

Forbes – Data Breaches Expose 4.1 Billion Records in First Six Months of 2019

Federal Trade Commission – What To Know About Credit Freezes and Fraud Alerts

U.S. News and World Report – Credit Card Data Breaches: How To Handle Them

Forbes – What Is a Data Breach?

Equifax – 7 Things To Know About Fraud Alerts

Consumer Reports – What To Do After a Data Breach