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Identity Theft Labs

Data Breaches

Ok, we don’t write about data breaches too much anymore…. quite frankly, we couldn’t keep up if we wanted to….. not when there are a couple hundred each year. Occasionally we talk about a large one or one that received media attention here. For a chronology of data breaches please see DataLossDB.

Please see our identity theft protection reviews to learn about the companies that can help protect you from identity theft even if your information was exposed in a data breach.

2016 Data Breaches

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), an accredited non-profit organization dedicated, like us, to helping educate the public about identity theft, there were 1091 data breaches in 2016 exposing over 35 million records. They have links to pdf’s that list all breaches on this page. Use the data breach list for detailed descriptions of each but if you just want to see if a company you deal with had a breach then your best to use the breach stats report and use the find function on your computer.

IdentityForce has a good summary of many of the major data breaches here, including Yahoo, AdultFriendFinder.com, Cisco, Weebly, DropBox, Oracle, LinkedIn, Wendys, Verizon Enterprise Solutions, Snapchat, UC Berkeley, University of Central Florida and of course our two personal favorites the U.S. Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service.

As you can see your data is no longer safe, hasn’t been in over a decade and its proven year after year. Why then do so many Americans choose to ignore the very real threat of identity theft? We don’t know but back in 2007, yes 10 years ago, we wrote a 4 part series titled Don’t be Fooled, Your Identity Is Not Safe, click here for part 1.

To us, not buying identity theft protection or otherwise taking steps to protect your identity is akin to not having fire insurance on your house or insurance on your vehicle. We need to start paying attention people, at least at a minimum start verifying your financial statements and ordering your credit reports. It’s amazing to us how many people still stick their head in the sand and just trust nothing bad will ever happen to them.

Please, take the time to educate yourself if your new to identity theft. Visit our homepage to learn the steps you can take to protect your identity for free or read this article Identity Protection – Do I Really Need It?. You can certainly learn a lot with 5 to 10 minutes of your time and it may save you countless hours in recovering from an identity theft situation.

We wish we could say 2017 will be a better year, things will change and identity theft will no longer happen or decline drastically, but you know there is no chance of that. Be smart, be safe. Protect yourself and your loved ones.

2014: One of the Weakest Years of Cybersecurity Ever

2014 will go down in history as one of the worst years of cybersecurity ever. The breaches at Target, Home Depot, and Bebe Stores have compromised the credit info for millions of consumers. U.S. Congress got fed up over the prolonged response to a data breach in the United States Postal Service. Then we top the year off with the ever-revealing Sony Pictures hack. Why is it that cybersecurity innovations and solutions are being created daily, but we’ve had some of the worst breaches ever this year?

Well, it all comes down to human error. The majority of these breaches didn’t regularly update or upgrade their cybersecurity and neglected it, making it ripe for the picking. There’s also the fact that many of the companies don’t encrypt or regularly change their passwords, which can allow others access to their networks. Bottom line isn’t that technology needs to get better: we need to be better with technology. For more on cybersecurity in 2014, please click here:: Did computer security get better or worse in 2014? Have your say…
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Why Is Japan Non-Plussed About Sony’s Hack?

The cyberattack on Sony Pictures has been a big deal in the news media as of late. Nearly every day since the breach, reports of leaked emails, scripts, and so much other information have been revealed. Amidst all this chaos from this breach, why is Sony’s main headquarters in Japan been quiet?

Well, it appears the company as the whole sees this breach as not an attack on Sony, but an attack on Hollywood. After all, the breach was focus on Sony Pictures and the film division in particular, not company wide. However, this sets a poor precedent. If hackers can easily get into one division of a company, who’s to know if they couldn’t move on to other areas? Bottom line, information security is important for all involved, from CEO downward. For more on this story, click here:: Why the Sony hack isn’t big news in Japan
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Staples: “Yeah, We Got Hacked”

Major office supply chain Staples announced that over 115 of its stores were infected by malware as a result of a massive data breach. They believe that around 1.16 million credit and debit cards have been compromised in the breach. It is suggested that you check your credit information if you visited a Staples from July 20th-September 16th of 2014. For more on this story, click here:: Staples Fins PoS Malware in 115 Stores; 1.16 Million Payment Cards Affected

An Anonymous Pastebin Post Killed a $40 Million Movie

There have been several stories throughout the news media regarding the hack on Sony and the cancellation of its film The Interview. Some believe Sony made the right call in pulling the film just in case there would be a violent retaliation. Others think Sony is giving in to terror. Either way a precedent has been set.

The threat of violence and terror over The Interview’s premiere was due to an anonymous Pastebin post. That anyone could have made. Anyone. It is odd that such a threat would come from a source like Pastebin rather than through more accessible, louder social media such as Facebook or Twitter. Though the main point is this: anyone can now terrorize a company through a mere anon post and get what they want provided the company believes them. Most assuredly, copycats will emerge within the next few months. For more on this perspective, click here:: All it takes to cancel a movie premiere is an anonymous Pastebin post
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