In the News
Customers of Amazon found themselves asking questions in light of a recent data exposure. In Amazon ‘Error’ Exposes Countless Customer Emails, Phil Muncaster at InfoSecurity Magazine discusses a recent exposure of Amazon User Emails due to what the company is dubbing a ‘technical error.’ Muncaster furthers that many customers were not satisfied with the lack of information provided by Amazon. Muncaster does state that Amazon told those impacted that they did not need to change their account password.
Our Take
The unfortunate reality is that data exposures are ubiquitous in our society. The scope and magnitude of the disclosures vary, but they all have one thing in common: the personal information of users is released without consent. Although some data exposures release less sensitive information such as email addresses or phone numbers, the information can be used in future attempts to steal more of an individual’s’ information and potentially their finances or identity through phishing attempts and other malicious attacks. While consumers do not have explicit control of their data once it is entered into an online account, they can still take active steps to reduce the amount of information available on their accounts and take measures to protect the security of their information by utilizing multi-factor authentication when possible and by creating strong and unique passwords often. Even if a company says that changing a password after a data exposure is not necessary, changing yours to a new and more unique password can never hurt.
Recommendations
How can you protect your personal information stored within your online accounts?
- Understand the risks of putting your personal information into the world, and only share what you have to
- Don’t reuse your account passwords, and take advantage of multi-factor authentication whenever possible
- Minimize the number of accounts that have direct access to your bank account or card numbers
- Track your finances closely to notice suspicious transactions before they become dangerous
- Stay up to date on the news regarding recent data breaches and security flaws to see if you may have been affected