The good news is, there’s a way to find out…and a way to do something about it.
Breached?
You hear about it all-time in the news: there’s been another major data breach. But in reality, because it was the network of some large company you don’t work for, you don’t pay too much attention to it.
But we all should.
Do you want to guess how many data breaches have been reported in 2019 so far?
How about 3,800—according to a report from Risk Based Security in August of this year. That number is way up percentage-wise from the last four or five years.
We should all be paying close attention because there’s a good chance that we have accounts with some of the businesses whose networks were breached. Companies like banks, credit card companies (including CapitalOne just recently), retailers, hospitals, dating sites, and even social media sites…(included LinkedIn).
But the point of my writing this is not to just talk about data breaches, but to help you do two very important things—right now, if you can:
- I want to help you find out, pretty much instantly, if you have accounts that have been involved in a data breach.
- I want to encourage you to take immediate action if you get the news that you have accounts that have been compromised.
I’ll show you how to that use a Free Data Breach Check to find all this out. The link is at the bottom of this page.
But first, here’s an explanation of a data breach, just to be clear on the topic.
What is a data breach?
A data breach happens when a network is hacked AND when information on that network—from corporate secrets to customer data—is stolen.
The hacking is done by cybercrooks who aren’t vandals smashing virtual windows. They’re cyber thieves intent on sneaking in, stealing data or money, and slipping away. Cyber thieves not only steal data, but they also sell it and share it. Oftentimes, the stolen data winds up on databases the cybercriminals share with each other.
In fact, many times a data breach is so successful (from the crooks’ perspective) that it isn’t discovered by the network administrators for months.
And it can take many more months for a company to report it—as was the case with the massive Equifax data breach that affected 140-million customer accounts.
Most of the time, when the breach is newsworthy, the stolen customer data will include any of the following:
- Account numbers
- Account Passwords
- Social Security numbers
- Credit Card numbers
- Home addresses
- Email addresses
- Private health or financial data
- Transaction histories
- Credit accounts
Scary to think about it, isn’t it? That’s why you must take this important message to heart.
Cyberthieves don’t do it for fun. They do damage. Protect your identity with a data breach check.
The Data Breach Check at WhatIsMyIPAddress.com is totally free! You simply enter an email address and hit the button that says “Breached?” for instant results.
Check it out now at https://whatismyipaddress.com/breach-check
