Have you ever received one of those dreaded data breach notification emails? Maybe it was from a big retailer you shopped at years ago. Or perhaps a social media site like LinkedIn warning your account was caught up in a larger hack.
As our digital and online presence grows, so too do the threats to our personal information privacy. Major breaches exposing sensitive user data have become near daily occurrences.
This guide will explain the data breach phenomenon, profile recent examples and their impacts, overview prevention best practices, and highlight 3 capable security services to help you monitor for emerging compromises of your data across the web. Arm yourself with knowledge – your privacy is worth protecting!
Personal Data Breaches Proliferate in the Digital Age
First, what constitutes a personal data breach? As non-profit privacy advocate Privacy Rights Clearinghouse defines it, a breach involves:
Unauthorized access to and retrieval of sensitive personal information to which custodians have been entrusted through their position or services they provide, resulting in the information being used to commit fraud or identity theft.
This encompasses everything from hackers penetrating databases of customer information at a retailer to malware on a healthcare provider‘s systems that exfiltrates patient data. It also includes insider threats from rogue employees intentionally stealing confidential data.
However they occur, personal data breaches endanger individuals by exposing names, government ID numbers, financial information, medical history, contact info, usernames and passwords, and more. Fraudsters can leverage these details to impersonate victims for identity theft and cybercrime.
Per recent research, these breaches show no signs of slowing:
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Identity Force‘s 2022 Consumer Risk Report found 87% of US adults were impacted by at least one data breach, many stretched back years.
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The Identity Theft Resource Center annual report revealed a 68% year-over-year jump in breaches from 2020 to 2021, exposing over 37 billion records.
Major known personal data breaches last year included:
| Breach | Records Exposed | Data Types |
|---|---|---|
| 533 million | Names, locations, birthdates, phone numbers, relationship status, employers | |
| 700 million | Names, emails, locations, genders, links to social media profiles | |
| T-Mobile | Over 40 million | Names, DOBs, SSNs, IDs, phone numbers |
And these represent only the breaches that have been publicly confirmed. Countless others fly under the radar. But whether leaked data appears on hacker forums or gets added to spam call lists, the exposure brings big risks.
Impacts and Consequences of Personal Data Breaches
Fallout from major personal data breaches run the gamut, depending who the victims are:
Individuals bear the brunt in the form of identity theft and financial fraud once their information circulates among cybercriminals online. A 2021 survey showed 83% of respondents feared identity theft following data breaches. And such fears are well founded – an earlier Javelin study found that victims‘ out-of-pocket fraud costs topped $56 billion collectively that year.
Medical info exposure presents especially high risks, given how much an identity goes for on the Dark Web – up to $1,000 per record according to FBI estimates. Healthcare databases offer cybercriminals a dangerous combination of names, ages, addresses, social security numbers, insurance details and intimate health history.
For businesses, data breaches inflict over $4 million in average losses according to IBM research. This staggering price tag stems from regulatory fines, legal liabilities, disruption to operations, permanently losing customer trust and future revenue, plus the actual recovery and investigation costs. For example, hotel giant Marriott saw a $148 million net loss following their 2018 data breach.
Breaches also severely impact governments, risking national security when confidential data around domestic operations, assets, personnel, or foreign policy leaks – as seen in the high-profile NSA breach by Chinese state hackers exploiting common but potent vulnerabilities. Administrations face political scandals and diplomatic crises when private meetings, messages or sensitive internal documents emerge publicly.
While personal data breaches will persist as near inevitabilities in the digital era, much can be done to minimize risks and monitor for emerging incidents looking to expose you or your organization‘s information.
Safeguarding Against Data Breaches
The threat landscape evolves too rapidly for any one security solution to offer complete, long term prevention of breaches. Defense requires embracing multiple layers of protection and vigilance across technical, policy and employee education domains.
For businessess, experts recommend at minimum:
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Establish ongoing cybersecurity awareness training as mandatory for all employees, customizing content based on access levels and job functions. Stress spotlight topics like phishing, strong password policies, social engineering red flags, safe remote work practices and responsible data handling.
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Implement principle of least-privilege in granting access to confidential data. Provide only the minimum needed permissions to employees and third parties. Reassess rights regularly.
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Maintain patch and update processes to rapidly fix security flaws in software critical vulnerabilities emerge. Prioritize based on assets and risk profile.
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Adopt modern zero-trust architecture centering on advanced user verification and stringent access controls rather than simple network location. Limit lateral movement opportunities within systems.
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Deploy defense-in-depth protective solutions (VPNs, next-gen firewalls, endpoint detection agents). Employ data-at-rest plus transport encryption. Maintain backups and recovery plans.
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Contract independent penetration testing services to probe environments for gaps from an attackers perspective. Remediate findings aggressively.
At the individual user level, experts advocate:
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Installing comprehensive endpoint antivirus/antimalware suites on all your devices – whether Windows, Mac, iOS or Android.
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Configuring built-in firewalls to restrict unwanted inbound network traffic. Enable auto app scanning capabilities.
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Using encrypted connections via VPN and HTTPS across devices to keep browsing safer, especially on public WiFi.
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Cautiously assessing permission requests from apps and services seeking access to contacts, messages, location data and other sensitive information repositories on smartphones. Only allow what‘s essential.
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Enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) on important accounts whenever available to require secondary credentials on top of main passwords.
Experts also push adopting unique complex passwords across accounts or better yet, password managers. But with personal data floating around post-breach regardless of login credentials, further monitoring represents a critical final layer so you know at the earliest stage when more of your information gets exposed.
Top Personal Data Breach Monitoring Services
Going beyond prevention controls, purpose-built security services now exist to continually scan compromised data dumps and shady forums for signs of your details caught up in new breaches. They act as watchdogs, sounding the alarm at the first trace of your emails, usernames, passwords, phone numbers or other identifiers popping up in places they should not be publicly visible.
Let‘s overview 3 top personal data breach monitoring platforms providing this protective surveillance:
Avast BreachGuard
Czech cybersecurity giant Avast offers Avast BreachGuard, an integrated data breach monitoring solution alerting users to any detected appearances of their info online.
Key Features
- Comprehensive dark web monitoring scanning for email addresses, passwords, phone numbers, and more
- Privacy adjustments facilitate opting-out from data brokers and ad platforms
- Browser extension blocks trackers and enforces security best practices for safer surfing
- Automatic alerts on any detected data exposures necessitating action
Pros
- Strong threat detection leveraging Avast‘s immense global sensor network
- Tight integration for existing Avast AntiVirus customers
- Broad coverage of personal ID types vulnerable post-breach
- Privacy perks like opt-outs and tracker blocking
Considerations
- Only supports Windows and Mac platforms currently
Pricing stands at $39.99 per year to cover one device.
Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection
Cybersecurity heavyweight Bitdefender leverages its respected intelligence to power Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection, focusing on personal data exposures.
Key Features
- Broad dark web monitoring for emails, phone numbers, passwords, usernames, and more
- Dashboards centralize views of all identified breaches and data finds
- Simplified opt-out process for removing info from data broker sites
Pros
- Holistic visibility into all data exposures from one simple dashboard
- Built on Bitdefender‘s proven, enterprise-grade cyberthreat detection capabilities
Considerations
- Relatively new service compared to competitors
- Limited in comparison tools between plans
Pricing comes in at $2.91 per month, billed annually, providing coverage across major platforms.
AVG BreachGuard
Another top name in the cybersecurity arena, AVG delivers its own distinct breach monitoring platform named AVG BreachGuard.
Key Features
- Monitors the dark web plus data broker sites for exposed emails, SSNs, passwords, etc
- Browser extensions block web trackers and enforce safer practices
- One-click opt-outs cleanly remove your data from people search sites
Pros
- Layered monitoring scanning both dark web and unscrupulous data brokers
- Browser helper identifies risky sites and hungry ad trackers
- Easy personal data removal from data broker directories
Considerations
- Less flexible support for mobile devices
Like the Avast offering, AVG BreachGuard costs $39.99 yearly for coverage of a single Windows or Mac machine.
Take Control by Monitoring Your Data
As businesses and consumers alike struggle with the downstream impacts of more frequent, larger-scale personal data breaches, tools like breach monitoring services provide vital protective surveillance. Think of them as your information‘s around-the-clock digital guard dogs.
Rather than resigning yourself as the next potential data breach victim, leverage these platforms to watch closely for early warnings when organizations lose control of your data. With prompt alerts, you can swiftly take actions like freezing credit reports, disputing fraudulent charges, or requesting data deletions to limit the fallout.
Regaining confidence around security in the digital age means accepting some lingering degree of risk – but also equipping yourself with vigilant safeguards like breach monitoring to respond aggressively against inevitable failures. The more eyes monitoring your information footprint online, the better.
So don‘t just wait apprehensively for the next ominous breach notification or discovery your data turned up on some shady hacker site. Go on the offensive! Deploy ongoing surveillance with tools like Avast BreachGuard, BitDefender ID Protection or AVG BreachGuard to rest easier knowing your sensitive details have constant protectors.
