Have You Been Breached? Here’s How to Find Out

Did you know that you could be the victim of a data breach without even knowing it? It’s possible, really. If a hacker has managed to infiltrate a website or service that you use without giving up the goat, so to speak, they could have your information and you might not even know about it. Thankfully, there are ways around this, and it all starts by asking that simple question: what if my information was stolen, and what is it being used for?

The Importance of Your Data

This is a line that we feel like we say a lot around here, but there is one fact that is absolutely true no matter what type of business you run or how big your company is. It does hold sensitive and valuable data that could be stolen and sold to the highest bidder on the black market. Whether it’s financial information or personal information stored by your human resources department, there is no shortage of valuable data to steal from a hacker’s perspective.

This is why it becomes critical to know if your information is being used by hackers in the wild.

Password Managers Can Help

Depending on the solution, your password manager might alert you if it detects that someone out there has stolen a password which is stored in its databases. Not all solutions do this though, so it’s important to make sure that yours has these capabilities before you expect it to do this for you.

Credit Monitoring Agencies

Have you ever checked a credit card balance or bank statement only to find a purchase you did not authorize on the other side of the world? Perhaps your bank alerted you that there were potentially fraudulent purchases made using your card or credentials. Credit monitoring works in a similar way, but on a much grander scale. Hackers might use your personal information to open up new lines of credit, so if you check your credit history and see new cards or accounts that are most definitely not yours, then you’ll know someone out there has your information.

Have I Been Pwned

Have I Been Pwned is a great tool created by security expert Troy Hunt. It is essentially a search engine that returns results for where your email address or phone number have been leaked online. It’s great for finding out if you have been involved in a data breach that may have flown under the radar, or if you happened to miss the notification.

Of course, the most effective way to keep hackers from using your data is to protect it and take preventative measures now. This is where Suffolk Computer Consultants comes in. We can help your business implement comprehensive security solutions designed to keep hackers off your network and away from your sensitive data.

To learn more about how we can secure your company, reach out to us at 631-905-9617.