A recent data breach at National Public Data (NPD breach) has exposed a staggering 3 billion personal records, affecting individuals worldwide. As cybercriminals continue to infiltrate systems, it’s crucial to understand the implications of such breaches and how to protect your personal information. Let’s break down what happened, the potential risks, and steps you can take to safeguard your data.
The Breach: What Happened?
A massive data breach has been discovered and linked back to National Public Data (NPD), a company that conducts background checks using non-public information sources. It was discovered when a Florida plaintiff received a notification from their identity theft protection service, indicating that their personal information had been compromised. The lawsuit filed against NPD, revealed they had exposed 3 Billion records in a data breach. Those records contain critical information including names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and even financial details. Essentially everything needed to perform identity theft. The breach highlights vulnerabilities in data storage and protection practices, impacting individuals and organizations alike. Now let’s look at how hackers use this breach data against us.
How Cybercriminals Exploit Data Breaches
Once cybercriminals obtain personal information, they can use it for various malicious activities:
Identity Theft:
Stolen personal information can be used to create fake identities, open bank accounts, apply for loans, and commit other fraudulent activities.
Phishing Attacks:
With access to personal data, criminals can craft convincing phishing emails or messages to trick individuals into revealing additional sensitive information or clicking on malicious links.
Financial Fraud:
Financial details, if compromised, can be used to make unauthorized transactions or purchases, draining victims’ bank accounts or securing and then maxing out credit cards obtained illegally.
Social Engineering:
Criminals can use personal information to manipulate victims into divulging even more sensitive data or performing actions that compromise their security. In addition to phishing attacks, hackers use social engineering to perform voice based attacks (vishing) and even SMS attacks (smishing) using the stolen data.
These are the most common hacker attacks using the NPD breach data against us. However, knowing these attacks exist is not enough. We really need to understand their potential impact to understand their significance. Let’s focus now on reviewing the impact such breaches can have on us as individuals.
The Impact of the Breach
The fallout from such a large-scale data breach can be extensive:
Financial Loss:
Victims may suffer direct financial losses due to unauthorized transactions and identity theft.
Emotional Distress:
Dealing with the aftermath of a data breach can be stressful and emotionally draining, especially if personal identities are misused.
Lost Work:
Lost work from identity theft occurs when victims must attend court to clear their name, proving their identity, and dispute fraudulent transactions caused by hackers using stolen data.
Legal Consequences:
Individual victims of identity theft face wrongful arrests and financial liabilities that can be hard to extricate from and usually require legal representation.
Knowing the methods hackers use to attack us and the impact those attacks can have is only half the battle. We now need to learn how to prevent them from ever happening to begin with. This is where we turn next: prevention.
How to Protect Yourself: Key Recommendations
Here are the proactive steps to protect your personal information. Here we’ll focus on awareness training, phishing testing, and freezing your credit to safeguard your data.
Cybersecurity Awareness Training
What it is:
Cybersecurity awareness training involves educating employees and individuals about the common tactics cybercriminals use and how to recognize and avoid them.
Why it’s important:
The human element is often the weakest link in cybersecurity. By increasing awareness, you can significantly reduce the risk of falling victim to cyberattacks involving social engineering whether phishing, smishing, vishing, or QR code phishing (Quishing).
How to do it:
- Regular Workshops: Attend or host regular workshops, conferences, and webinars on common cybersecurity best practices.
- Online Security Awareness Training (SAT: Utilize online courses and training from vendors like CyberHoot that cover cybersecurity basics (aka: Cyber Literacy).
- Updates on Latest Threats: Stay informed about the latest threats and trends in cybersecurity through newsletters and alerts from trusted sources such as CyberHoot’s weekly Blog.
Phish Testing
What it is:
Phish testing involves assigning employees simulated emails and asking them to identify safe and unsafe elements of that email, essentially, teaching them how to phish.
Why it’s important:
Phishing attacks are one of the most common ways cybercriminals gain access to sensitive information. Regular simulations help individuals recognize phishing attempts more quickly, confidently, so they can react appropriately.
How to do it:
- Simulated Phishing Emails: Implement regular simulated phishing attacks to test employees’ responses.
- Analyze Results: Review the results to identify who struggled with their assigned phishing simulations and provide them additional assistance and training.
- Follow-Up Training: Provide targeted training for individuals who failed the tests to improve their awareness and response.
Freezing Your Credit
What it is:
Freezing your credit involves restricting access to your credit report, making it difficult if not impossible for identity thieves to open new financial accounts in your name.
Why it’s important:
Even if cybercriminals have your personal information, a credit freeze can prevent them from using it to commit financial fraud.
How to do it:
- Contact all the major and minor Credit Bureaus: Reach out to the major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, Equifax, and Innovis) to request a credit freeze. Then reach out to the secondary credit bureaus as outlined in this article on CyberHoot and freeze your credit there as well.
- Follow the Process: Each bureau will have its process, often involving setting up a login account, creating a PIN or password. Make sure to enable multi-factor authentication for access, or better yet, passkeys (if available) to secure your frozen credit account. Don’t reuse any passwords for these accounts!
- Monitor Your Credit: Even with a freeze, keep an eye on your credit reports for any suspicious activity.
Adopt a Password Manager
What is it?
a password manager is a secure and efficient way to set, save, store, and recall long 14+ character passwords for all your online accounts.
Why is it important?
The average user has 80 to 200 online accounts. Maintaining unique passwords on all those accounts is impossible without a password manager. CyberHoot always recommends enrolling in a password manager.
How to do it:
- Choose a reliable password manager using this “How to Choose a Password Manager“
blog article from CyberHoot as your guide. - Chose and practice typing in an 18+ length master password (most likely a passphrase) and setting up robust multi-factor authentication for access.
- Install that password manager into your browser as a plugin to log into all of your unique accounts with unique, long, and strong passwords. Many newer password managers support the most secure authentication method – passkeys. CyberHoot recommends those in addition to multi-factor authentication on your online accounts.
Conclusion
The exposure of 3 billion personal records in the NPD breach is a stark and sobering reminder of how interconnected our personal data is in the digital age. By focusing on cybersecurity awareness training, phish testing, freezing your credit, and adopting a password manager, you reduce your risk of becoming a victim. Practicing good cybersecurity hygiene and staying informed about the latest security threats are important to protect your data from cybercriminals.
