I just found out that my cell phone company was hacked. They don’t have my credit card information or any other important information except for my cell number that I don’t use for much.
It reminded me that these hacks have become a part of life. At large stores. At phone companies. At utility companies. Places with important information.
But then there are places like social media accounts, online forums and email accounts that are routinely hacked. These might not have much critical information.
Even password protection services companies have all been hacked.
Sometimes they don’t even notify you. I’ve learned about a lot of breaches from reading online security forums.
Of the times you’ve known about, how many times has your information been breached, even if the information was trivial?
The only time I’ve become aware of the possibility of my information being hacked is when a local business advised me by email that their customer database had been hacked.
This is a company that produces high quality bakery products, fancy chocolates and speciality blends of coffee and tea. They have customers from all over the country and probably all over the world and send out a wide range of gift hampers, so their database must have had a lot of customer addresses and emails. I was on their database because I sometimes order gift hampers to be sent by post to friends and family.
I kept an eye out for anything dodgy that may result from it but I didn’t experience any problems - I think all the hackers got would be a list of names, addresses and email addresses - no card information.
I never use my main email address for any online orders or my bank account payment cards. I keep a disposable email address and a separate credit card for online purchases, so that I can easily cancel both if they ever become compromised.
There have been a lot of hacks here. One year, long ago, two of the biggest health insurance providers got hacked. That affected the majority of the population although most didn’t know about it. The only notification was a form letter that most don’t read.
Then some of the biggest retailers were hit. Again people weren’t really notified. The only notice is when the bank cancels your credit card and issues a new one. They won’t even tell you where the breach was.
Several message boards I’ve been on have been hacked but they don’t have any information, just usernames, passwords and an email address.
As far as I know, neither myself nor any company I do business with have ever been hacked. You never know as a customer as you say but there hasn’t been any activity on the part of them that sounded fishy to my like asking for a new email address or issuing new cards and stuff. I occasionally check with a platform to find out if my major email address is for sale.
I even haven’t had a computer virus in 33 years. Have I just been lucky?
After the Medibank (Insurance) hack I eventually received a letter telling that my information had been stolen. and that they were sorry it had taken them so long to contact me.
I rang them up because I have never been insured with Medibank - it turned out to be a company they had taken over that a few decades ago I did have insurance with.
The information stolen would have be useless, wrong phone number, wrong email address, no credit card information, as for my name and address that is on the electoral roll.
Mr M’s recently had a communication from a company he dealt with about 6 or 7 years ago … they still had his information on file and they were hacked. A car purchase.
They’ve offered him two years worth free membership to Experian so he can watch for suspicious activity such as loans applied for in his name, or identity theft and he’s also been advised to closely monitor all bank statements or withdrawals…
Stuff that . .there’s already a firm of solicitors urging people who may fall victim and out of pocket to let them represent ‘a group’ to sue the company involved for compensation.
And unrelated
A few years ago … someone with a Greek name did actually you use my address to try to obtain store cards and credit cards and car insurance … he wasn’t too bright as he ordered electrical goods which were delivered to my house.
Which is how I realised someone was using my address to obtain credit.
I’m still unsure how he expected to get his paws on his goodies. Knock on my front door?
This is more straightforward to nip in the bud.
You notify the police who give you a ‘crime number’ which you then forward to an agency who then lists it, and it blocks any further transactions.
