How to deal with a data breach

News about data breaches are always making headlines day in day out with major corporations being affected. While the reputation of these high-profile companies is affected, your data is the most impacted entity. Having a clear-cut plan for dealing with data breach occurrences is crucial as it will help you reduce the impact.

Most corporations might alert you or not in cases of a data breach. However, once you catch wind of the news, you should not hesitate to take precautionary measures. Here are steps to take in case of a data breach:

Find out what has been breached

How you react to a data breach is entirely dependent on the type of information that has been compromised. If the hackers only managed to get away with some usernames and not any other data, then there is not much to worry about. However, if they gained access to both your usernames and passwords – you will need to take serious steps to ensure your information stays safe. On the other hand, if your credit card/ bank details have been compromised, then there is a need to contact your bank immediately.

Once the organization storing any of your information contacts you to report a data breach; then you should start recalling the amount of data they had access to. Usually, your company is supposed to specify the type/amount of information that has been tampered with. Nonetheless, you should always assume your whole information has been compromised.

What to do when financial information is compromised

Immediately you realize either your debit or credit card has been compromised, then you should contact your bank immediately – have them cancel your cards, and plan to have new ones instead. In case your bank account information has been tampered with – especially online banking, then take action to have your account closed and reopen a new one after.

What to do when login details are compromised

When dealing with this kind of breach, you need to know what details the hacker might be having. For instance, if it is just the password, then you should have it changed – we always encourage our readers to use standard practices of password creation like using strong and unique passcodes, with an enabled two-factor authentication technique.

Always use a different unique password for each account you open. If remembering them all is challenging, then you should have a good password managing tool.

Use a VPN service

After dealing with a breach, you should secure your online data from future attacks. Working with institutions that care about your information by keeping it private and secure is part of that process. All this will be achieved if both you and your dependent corporations are using strong security mechanisms. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are using strong security mechanisms such as a reputable strong VPN. A VPN encrypts your data, won’t store logs and it can also hide your physical location. This way you can be sure a hacker cannot get to you.