It's alarming how common it is for websites to be hacked, with around 4,800 being breached by cybercriminals every month through form jacking code. This can result in the exposure of personal information and passwords, and the time between the hack and notification can be lengthy. For example, the CafePress data breach in February 2019 affected millions of people and took months for consumers to be notified. It's important to be proactive in protecting yourself, as it may be months or years before you find out about a compromise of your data. Here are some recent breaches that you should be aware of:
- In October 2022, Microsoft announced a customer data breach due to a misconfigured server that potentially affected over 65,000 entities worldwide.
- EdFinancial and the Oklahoma Student Loan Authority (OSLA) suffered a breach in July 2022 that exposed the personal information of over 2.5 million loan recipients, including social security numbers, email addresses, home addresses, and phone numbers.
- U-Haul had a major data breach in August 2022 that affected over 2.2 million individuals who rented vehicles from the company, exposing names, driver's license numbers, and state identification numbers.
- Neopets, a website for virtual pets, suffered a breach in 2022 that may have compromised the data of 69 million accounts, including emails and passwords.
- Marriott, a hotel chain, had a data breach in July 2022 due to an unsecured employee computer, potentially exposing the information of 300-400 individuals, including credit card numbers. This was the third breach for the company in the past four years.
- Shield Health Care Group, a Massachusetts-based company, detected a breach in March 2022 that may have exposed up to 2 million customer records, including medical records and social security numbers.
- Flagstar Bank suffered a breach in December 2021 and it wasn't until June 2022 that they were able to identify the individuals affected, which included names, addresses, and social security numbers.It's important to be aware of these breaches and take steps to protect yourself, such as changing passwords and being cautious of giving out personal information.
It's important to stay informed and take steps to protect yourself online. If you have any questions or concerns about your personal data, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're here to help you stay safe online. Contact us.
