Ever wonder what to do if your personal information gets stolen and ends up for sale on the Dark Web? Imagine that your name, address, drivers license, social security number and date of birth were all stored in an online database by your healthcare provider and that data was stolen by hackers and put up for sale on the Dark Web. What can you do to keep this from happening to you?
The Takeaway
1. Dark web & credit monitoring
The first thing you can do is watch for private data that’s been leaked. Think about it – you can’t recall your stolen information and unlike getting a new credit card number, it’s hard to change your name, social security number or medical history. But, you can keep an eye out for others trying to use your private information for personal gain. We do Dark Web Monitoring for businesses so if you’re interested in that for your company, please reach out. As for individuals, most credit cards not only have a credit monitoring service but also have dark web monitoring available for your identity. Sign up for that. Also, under normal circumstances you can only check your credit for free once per year. But, because of Covid-19, you can now check your credit reports from Equifax, Experion and TransUnion – that’ all 3 credit bureaus – for free every week. The only legitimate website for this is www.annualcreditreport.com.
2. Password manager
The second thing you can do is use a password manager for your business such as Lastpass or Keeper. Just last week we came across another business using Excel to save all of their passwords. What if that Excel file were to fall into the wrong hands? I’m telling you, a password protected Excel file or post-its are not great places to store your company passwords. Just look at this:

This picture was taken by a news crew when they came to interview the staff at Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency. This was right after they told millions of us that we had minutes to live before the nuclear apocalypse.
Anyway, using a password manager allows your company to have a unique password for every website being used and when used correctly, dramatically reduces the chance that your business will get hacked. Password managers are relatively inexpensive and are a no-brainer for every successful company.
3. EDR Protection
And #3 on our list is having a second look at your security software. There’s plenty out there, but top shelf security software such as a good EDR, that’s short for Endpoint Protection and Response, it’s worth the expense. Not only will an EDR prevent malicious software and code from infiltrating your network, it will keep an eye out for unusual activity and vulnerabilities with the software you may already be using every day. Have more questions about EDR? Feel free to reach out.
Stay safe out there
-A
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