A few months back, you may remember I blogged about Identity Theft after attending a seminar. The facts and real life scenarios, such as more than one billion records containing personally identifiable information were leaked in 2014 alone, impacted me and my every day decisions as well as in my long-term life plan.

I have done a lot of research to become more informed. I continued to find articles like these, talking about company’s data breach.

• Wendy’s Food Chain had a credit card breach. Did you know? Are you subject to the breach?
  • Did you visit any of the locations late in 2015? If so, you should contact your credit card company to find out what action you should take.
• Verizon Enterprise Data Breach
  • The 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) there were nine common threat patterns that were looked into and how they are evolving from last year’s report.
  • Reports show 1.5 million customer contact records were swiped and offered for sale on the Dark Web, customers at risk for phishing attacks.

There are hundreds of data breach cases that have occurred over the past couple years, some high-profile cases like Ebay and Target and others smaller cases that occur daily at universities, hospitals, and public and private sector businesses. So what can you do to protect yourself when the companies you do business with are breached? A LOT! Here are some tips on phishing and how to avoid getting ‘caught’;

• Know legitimate businesses do not send email, text messages, or call randomly, asking for private information. Delete the message, do not respond to call. If you are concerned it may be legitimate, contact the company through the contact information you have.
• Do not trust Caller ID.
• Stop and think about each situation that you are providing sensitive information in. Do not go into automatic mode and just fill in the blanks or hand over ID cards to be copied.

We encourage you to attend our free Cyber Security Lunch and Learn, offered exclusively to our Business Warrior readers.  RSVP asap, as seating is limited! You will find more information on our home page and in the newsletter email. Or contact Nancy at nancy.economos@compassiowa.com. We look forward to helping you secure your private information.