What To Do if Your Data Has Been Breached

These days, it seems like everyone has experienced at least one data breach. You get a letter, email or text informing you that hackers broke into the records of an institution you use and your personal information may be at risk. What exactly was exposed and how much is often unclear.

More than 22,000 confirmed data breaches were analyzed in the 2026 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, representing the largest volume of incidents examined in the report’s 19-year history.

As data breaches become more common, consumers should know how to protect their information and act quickly when a breach threatens their privacy.

What Is a Data Breach?

Cybercriminals are constantly evolving their tactics to swipe personal information, but data breaches are large-scale attacks that can compromise thousands — or even millions — of records at once, often by targeting big organizations like banks, health care institutions and major retailers. Hackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, studying organizations’ data systems and cybersecurity programs to find ways to break in.

Information leaked in a data breach can include Social Security numbers, bank account and credit card numbers, passwords, birth dates, addresses and passport numbers, according to Experian. Cyber thieves use the information to set up accounts and run up bills in your name without your knowledge — or sell it to other people who will do the same.

The top methods used to commit data breaches include stealing login credentials, exploiting software vulnerabilities and phishing. Unsurprisingly, a growing prevalence of artificial intelligence-enabled cyberattacks is also raising new alarms across the cybersecurity landscape.

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What To Do if Your Data Has Been Breached

If you receive a data breach notice, follow these steps recommended by Experian.

• First, don’t ignore data breach notifications. Follow up as soon as possible.
• If the organization that had the breach offers you free fraud and identity theft monitoring services, take them.
• Run a privacy scan and a dark web search to see if your information is on any illicit or hidden websites.
• Monitor your bank accounts, credit cards and Social Security account for any fraudulent activity.
• Check your credit reports with all three credit bureaus — Experian, TransUnion and Equifax — to ensure there is no activity you don’t recognize.
• Place a fraud alert or a credit freeze on your credit report. A fraud alert requires creditors to confirm your identity before approving an application, while a credit freeze blocks new credit accounts from being opened in your name.
• If no one has opened an account in your name or made unauthorized purchases, you don’t need to report credit or identity theft. If they have, contact the organizations involved, as well as the Federal Trade Commission, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and local law enforcement agencies.

Listen to Our Podcast

Get tips to outsmart scammers and protect your personal data. Listen to Episode 12 of our podcast, Merging Into Life: Identity Theft.

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How to Prevent Data Breaches

While protecting your personal and work data from large-scale breaches at corporations is difficult, you can safeguard your information as best as possible with these tips.

• At work, always follow the company’s security protocols and make sure all virus protection programs are current, use passwords that are not easy to guess and promptly report any missing hardware.
• Follow the same steps with your personal information, including purging old information from devices and shredding paper documents with sensitive information.
• Open an E-Verify account to confirm your legal authorization to work in the U.S. and lock your Social Security number to prevent others from using it to get a job.
• Subscribe to comprehensive cybersecurity protection through a service like Norton 360.
• Sign up for ProtectMyID from AAA and Experian. ProtectMyID actively monitors your credit and identity around the clock, alerting you right away if it detects any suspicious activity involving your personal information. All AAA membership levels include Essential monitoring for free!

Have you experienced a data breach? How were you able prevent or minimize damage?

Ellen R. Delisio

Ellen is a content producer for AAA Northeast, covering automotive, finance, public affairs and electric vehicle news. She is a former newspaper reporter with experience writing for print and online publications about everything from higher education to sustainability. She recently returned to her native Long Island after living in Connecticut for 20-plus years, and has never met a beach she didn’t like.