Scam of the day – May 18, 2024 – New Developments in Dell Data Breach

by | May 17, 2024 | Scam of the day

Recently, Dell Technologies contacted its customers to inform them that Dell had suffered a data breach in which personal information of 49 million of its customers had been stolen.  Dell downplayed the data breach saying that the information compromised was not particularly sensitive although it did include the names and addresses of its customers, but did not include email addresses, phone numbers or other sensitive financial information.  Now, however, the hacker who identifies himself as Menelik has disclosed that in another data breach against Dell, Menelik does have phone numbers and email addresses of Dell customers.

Last year, there were more than 1,800 reported data breaches and probably many more that were not reported affecting 422 million people.  The question is not if you will become a victim of a data breach.  The question is when.

So what can you do to protect yourself from these data breaches that will be occurring?

TIPS

You should  make sure that you have a unique password for each of your online accounts so that if one of your passwords is compromised in a data breach, all of your accounts will not be in danger.  If your information is compromised in a data breach, you should immediately change the password for that account.  You also should use dual factor authentication whenever offered by any site you use to protect your security even if your password is compromised.

One way to get strong unique passwords for all of your accounts is to use a password manager. If you are interested in using a password manager, here is a link to an article  from PC magazine that compares many of the legitimate password managers available to you. https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-password-managers

If you do decide to use a password manager, you should remember not to use your password manager master password for any of your other accounts.  You also should use dual factor authentication so that even if someone were to gain access to your password manager master password, your password manager account could not be accessed.

However, if you would like to use the helping hand you find at the end of your own arm and generate unique, complex passwords for each of your accounts that are easy to remember, here is a strategy that is very effective. You can start with a strong base password constructed from a phrase, such as IDon’tLikePasswords that has capital letters, small letters and a symbol, add a few symbols at the end so it may read IDon’tLikePasswords!!! and then adapt it with a few letters for each particular account you have so that you will have a secure and easy to remember password for each of your online accounts.   Thus, your Amazon password could be IDon’tLikePasswords!!!AMA

Finally, be wary whenever you are contacted following a data breach by anyone offering assistance.  Scammers will often contact victims of data breaches posing as governmental agencies or private companies claiming they can assist in protecting the victims when all they really will do is convince you to pay them for worthless services.  Since it now appears that email addresses and phone numbers were compromised, you should be particularly skeptical if you are a Dell customer of any email or phone call that you get that purports to be from Dell or related to the Dell data breach.

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#delldatabreach

Phone calls, emails, and text messages are among the primary ways that scam artists, the only criminals we call artists, contact their targeted victims. Scammers have a knowledge of psychology that Freud would have envied, and they are adept at luring us to click on malware-infected links, provide personal information that can lead to identity theft, or make a payment. Anyone can be scammed. For years, I have told you, “Trust me, you can’t trust anyone,” and that you should be skeptical of emails, phone calls, and text messages prompting you to act. But how can you know if a phone call, email, or text message is legitimate? Fortunately, there is a terrific new product called ScamAssist® from Iris® Powered by Generali that you can turn to quickly to let you know if that communication is a scam. It can be a lifesaver. While Iris® Powered by Generali doesn’t offer ScamAssist for direct purchase, if you’re a business professional looking to fill a product gap in your portfolio and want to provide customers a service they’ll truly value, contact Iris at IrisIdentityProtection.com/Scamicide to learn how you can get started. Join a growing list of companies – such as Staples – that have recognized that providing ScamAssist to its customers helps protect them and generates goodwill.