Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/959439
In 2017's first half, according to Irving, Texas- based data security firm Trend Micro, data breaches were revealed involving more records than in all of 2016. That included sensitive information belonging to 145 million custom- ers of credit reporting agency Equifax, 57 mil- lion Uber drivers, 198 million voters exposed by a political research firm leak and 14 mil- lion Verizon customers. Also last year, Yahoo! revealed that 3 billion user accounts were exposed in 2013. Hackers sell stolen data to identity thieves to commit fraud on financial institutions and merchants. They penetrate computer databases because of security slipups including using soft- ware that hasn't been updated with the latest security patches, failure to properly configure security settings and simple human error. Database owners who learn of a breach must notify people whose data has been exposed. So you may learn your data has been stolen when you get a letter or email from a company with which you do business. If that happens, the Federal Trade Commission's IdentifyTheft.gov recommends these first steps: 1. Call the breached company and freeze or close affected accounts. 2. Change account log-in information, pass- words and PINs. 3. Contact Equifax, Experian or TransUnion to place a free, 90-day fraud alert on your records. 4. Request a free credit report from all three agencies at annualcreditreport.com. hen it comes to securing personal data, there are two types of consumers — those who have had their personal information exposed through a data breach and those who potentially will in the future. Which group is larger is anybody's guess. But there's no doubt that data breaches are becoming common and that it's common sense for consumers to know what to do if it happens to them.