Three reasons why you shouldn’t ignore a data breach notice

Are you suffering from data breach fatigue and feeling tempted to ignore a data breach notice you receive in your inbox or mail? Or are you simply self-assured that your info has no value to cybercrooks?

Hackers know of this temptation to dismiss these concerns, and they’re thriving off of consumers’ growing complacency regarding cybersecurity.

Even if the data breach involves outdated information, such as an email address and password from an old account you no longer use, there’s a good chance that you’ve either re-used that same password elsewhere or that the account could hold identifiable data that can be used in social engineering schemes against you.

Simply ignoring a data breach notice or alert puts you at risk of additional security incidents.

In our digital age, cybercriminals can get their hands on a variety of sensitive data, whether through hacks, leaks, social engineering attacks or malware. This data may include credit card numbers, Social Security Numbers, IDs, passwords and other pieces of personally identifiable information that can be used to compromise your identity, finances and reputation.

Here are three reasons you shouldn’t ignore such alerts:

You can become a victim of identity theft

Receiving a data breach notification can be a predictor of identity fraud incidents. Depending on the type of information exposed in a breach, cybercriminals can find multiple ways to exploit it for personal gain, such as by opening new lines of credit in your name, filing fraudulent tax returns or stealing your rewards and airline miles.

Your online accounts can be hacked

Data breaches involving exposure of login credentials may lead to credential-stuffing attacks. Threat actors use compromised email addresses and passwords to gain access to all of your accounts. These types of attacks are especially dangerous when taking into account poor password management (password reuse/recycling).

You’re putting your family’s wellbeing at risk

Data breaches can have serious long-term financial and reputation implications for victims and their families. On top of a damaged credit score, financial loss and emotional distress, the consequences of a data breach can also extend to your closest kin. Moreover, if your accounts and data are exposed, malicious individuals may also use them to target your friends or family.

Do you wonder how many times your data has been exposed online?

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection monitors your most sensitive data starting with just an email address and phone number. It automatically scours the web to find your private information in online legal and illegal collections of data, and even checks if your personal details have been exposed on the Dark Web. You also get instant alerts for new breaches and privacy threats (including social media impersonation) so you can act quickly to limit their impact.

Whenever a data breach is detected, you will receive actionable tips to help you secure your accounts and improve your privacy.