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