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Do You Know How Safe Your Data Is?


— April 26, 2019

Have you been affected by a data breach? How would you even know?


More than half of Americans don’t understand what steps to take to check if they’ve been in a data breach. As technology continues to evolve, this means that there’s more opportunity for people to put their data online—sometimes without even knowing they are. 

It can happen when you’re online shopping for food, buying new clothes, or tracking your fitness progress on an app. Something online that seems like an everyday task still leaves your personal information vulnerable. 

You’d expect more people to be aware of how dangerous it is to put too much of your data online, but according to a Lexington Law survey of over 1,000 people, 66% of them wouldn’t know what to check if a breach happened to them. What’s the reasoning behind this statistic?

Man checking data on laptop; image by Content Creators, via unsplash.com.
Man checking data on laptop; image by Content Creators, via unsplash.com.

In 2017, more than 1,579 U.S. total data breaches occurred. Trying to check on each one would add up to looking into more than four a day, every day, for that year alone. Learning about data security comes off as too time consuming and complicated for most people. Some simply think that they’re not prone to attacks, and others don’t have regular habits to help prevent this problem—like checking your bank history or reviewing your credit score for suspicious behavior. 

Feel free to also check the website: https://haveibeenpwned.com. Here, all you need to do is enter your email and the site will let you know if you should worry about a data breach.

These are just a handful of the stats and tips Lexington Law uncovered in their study. Follow their link to gain more insight about how to shield yourself from an attack. 

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