Last week news broke of a large data breach. This breach is said to have 2.9 billion records leaked, including things like Social Security Numbers, full names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers. National Public Data, a large data warehouse organization, confirmed they suffered the large data breach. Initial reports suggested those living in Canada and the UK were also impacted, but NPD made no comments regarding that during their confirmation.
Data warehouses
Data warehouses are organizations that collect and store massive amounts of data, oftentimes data on people,in order to sell to other businesses. A lot of the data they accumulate is publicly available information, but can also come from other organizations. These warehouses end up with massive amounts of data about you and I that are usually well organized and easy for a cybercriminal to use if they obtain access.
How they get data
As mentioned above, these warehouses obtain large amounts of public information that is widely available. These organizations also obtain data through sharing with other organizations or purchasing from other organizations. They even get this data from you indirectly. Oftentimes a business, medical facility, financial institution, etc., may have partnerships with these warehouses. Part of you doing business with these organizations you may volunteer to share certain information. Well, this is that information.
What you can do
Here are some preventative measures to take if concerned about this breach or other breaches:
- Freeze your credit
- Monitor your credit
- Setup fraud alerts
- Monitor financial accounts
- Obtain credit reports
Here is a measure to take if your identity has been stolen due to a data breach:
When these large data breaches happen, cybercriminals act fast, knowing that many of those impacted will enable security measures to protect themselves. After the initial buzz goes away though, cybercriminals will continue to utilize the breached information, so it is important to keep these security measures in place.
Subscribe to our monthly email newsletter to keep your small business up-to-date on all the latest cybersecurity news! For more information on protecting your small business from cyberattacks and other cybersecurity topics check out Small Business, Big Threat!