What Should I Do When My Data Is Breached?

If you discover that your personal information was exposed as part of a data breach, you must act immediately to secure your accounts and prevent fraud. A data breach is when someone steals your personal and sensitive information from an organization’s digital records.

We provide a comprehensive guide about what to do following a data breach involving your personal information. We also discuss how you can implement long-term measures to prevent future breaches and monitor for signs of identity theft. Contact a consumer protection lawyer if you need legal help following a data breach.

Immediate Steps To Take After a Data Breach

Data breaches can take time to discover. When you receive notice of the data security breach, your personal or financial information may have been available to identity thieves for quite some time already.

The data breach notice may recommend that you take some actions, like getting free credit monitoring services. If so, take advantage of it. Act if you notice suspicious activity, such as email, mail, or bills from unfamiliar lenders or credit card companies.

Protect Your Bank Account or Credit Card Information

If the data breach exposed your bank information or debit card, contact your bank to close the account. You can then get a new account and debit card number.

Contact the credit card company to address the exposure of your account information. Explain what happened. They’ll send a card with a new credit card number.

Protect Your Passwords

Once you receive a breach notification, you should take the following actions concerning an online login or password:

• Log into the breached account and change your username and password
• Update passwords on your debit card and credit card accounts with strong passwords
• Change any PINs you use to access your debit card and credit card accounts
• Have unique passwords for each of your online accounts
• Consider a password manager for generating secure passwords

In addition to taking these measures regarding your password, enroll in two-factor authentication (or multi-factor authentication). It makes it harder for identity thieves to gain access to your accounts.

Protect Your Credit

Credit reports and your credit score impact everything from mortgage rates and insurance costs to whether your job application moves forward. It’s critical to protect your credit following a data breach.

• Create a fraud alert on your credit report: A fraud alert makes it more difficult to open a new credit account in your name. A business must verify your identity before opening a new line of credit in your name. When you place a free fraud alert on your credit report, you can review your credit report with each of the three credit bureaus.
• You can freeze your credit report: A credit freeze restricts access to your credit report. It lasts until you remove it. You can’t open a new credit account when your credit report is frozen. You can temporarily lift the credit freeze to apply for new credit.

You have a good chance of stopping cybercriminals by detecting potential scams early. Early discovery allows you to investigate or report identity theft before scammers get too far. Checking your credit report is a great place to start.

Understand Your Legal Rights

Following a data breach, understanding your legal rights as a consumer is critical. With the prevalence of identity theft, cybersecurity has drastically improved.

However, companies and government agencies continue to struggle to combat all cyberattacks. The dark web allows cybercriminals to engage in the following:

• Identity theft
• Installation of malware
• Phishing
• Credit card and bank account fraud

The Federal Trade Commission provides resources concerning identity theft protection. For guidance, visit IdentityTheft.gov.

Report the Data Breach

The company that experienced the data breach will likely inform you about the security breach involving your personal data. State laws require private businesses to provide a breach notification when personally identifiable information is the subject of a data breach. In most states, security breach notification laws also apply to governmental entities.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) allows California consumers to sue a business for a data breach under certain conditions. The CCPA applies to businesses, including data brokers, giving consumers privacy protections relating to their personal information.

Many U.S. companies are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR is a European Union general privacy regulation applying to all organizations storing or processing EU residents’ personal information. It outlines an organization’s duties when there’s a data breach.

Monitor for Identity Theft

After a data breach involving your information, you should monitor your financial accounts and credit file. Pay close attention to the breached accounts.

A data breach increases the chances that hackers could compromise your other financial accounts. Set up any available alerts with credit bureaus to keep you informed of your account activity.

You can check your credit report for free at AnnualCreditReport.com. This is the only site directed by federal law to provide free credit reports. You can review your credit reports from:

• Equifax
• Experian
• TransUnion

Regularly monitoring your Social Security number (SSN) by checking your credit report can help identify unusual activity. This step can also help detect credit fraud and identity theft. You can set up alerts with a credit reporting provider that will send you text messages or emails whenever there’s new activity on your credit report.

Identity thieves often use personal information such as SSNs, phone numbers, and addresses to open new accounts and obtain new credit in your name.

Get Legal Help for Data Breach

Do you need more help after experiencing a data breach involving your personal information? If so, a consumer protection lawyer can help. They can explain your legal rights under the applicable laws, how to monitor for signs of identity theft, and more. Get help today.