In the over twelve years that I have been writing Scamicide, today and tomorrow represent the second time that I have ever had to write about data breaches on consecutive days.  This is an indication of how common serious data breaches have become.  This situation is very frustrating, but as I have reminded you many times, we are only as safe and secure as the security of the companies, government agencies and websites that have our personal information.  Even if you are extremely diligent in protecting your personal information, you can be in danger of identity theft and scams if your personal information falls into the hands of hackers.

Today’s data breach involves 230,000 customers of Internet service provider Comcast Cable Communications which does business as Xfinity which disclosed this week that it had suffered a major data breach that goes back to 2021 in which names, addresses, birth dates, Comcast account numbers and, most disturbingly,  Social Security numbers of more than 230,000 its customers were compromised.    Armed with your Social Security number, a criminal can make you a victim of costly identity theft quite readily.

The data breach of Comcast was not the fault of Comcast but rather the fault of Financial Business and Consumer Solutions (FBCS) a debt collection agency that was formerly used by Comcast.  The stolen data related to Comcast customers in 2020 and 2021.  The data breach at FBCS occurred last February and originally was not believed to have compromised any Comcast customer data, however, this week it was determined that indeed Comcast customer data was compromised in a ransomware attack

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

TIPS

One important lesson is to limit the amount of personal information that you provide to companies and websites whenever possible.  For example, your doctor doesn’t need your Social Security number for his or her records.

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.

If you have not already done so, set up dual factor authentication for each of you accounts where it is available. This will protect you from having those accounts stolen by someone who may have access to your password.  However it should be noted that the malware responsible for this particular data breach is able to bypass password requirements and dual factor authentication.

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