Do you know who to report data breaches to? Are you a victim of one recently? Or do you want to be prepared if that happens? Then, this article is for you. So, read on.
Who to Report Data Breaches To
When a data breach happens or when you are a victim of one, you have to know who to report it to. Some many authorities or agencies can help you, depending on the data breach.
For example, in the US, you need to report to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) if your data was stolen by hackers. On the other hand, if it was stolen by someone you entrusted your data to, like your employer or the company you gave the data to, then you must report it to the state attorney general. You can also report it to the state or local agency that regulates the type of business where your data was stolen.
If you are in Canada, then you need to report it to both your provincial privacy commission and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC). And if you live in Europe, then you need to report it to the national authority that regulates your sector.
But if none of these authorities can help you, then contact your bank or credit card company. If your data was stolen from them, they can help you protect yourself and manage any damage caused by this breach.
How To Report A Data Breach To Authorities
Now that we know whom we should report data breaches too, how do we do it? There are some steps we must follow so that everything goes smoothly and so our identities are protected.
First of all, we need to find out whether we were victims of a data breach and what type of information was leaked. The easiest way is to check our bank statements and credit card statements for any suspicious activity. If we see something unusual on them, then we probably were hacked and we need to check with our bank whether our accounts were compromised or not.
After finding out whether we were victims or not, we need to gather as much information about the incident as possible: who stole our data? When did they steal it? When did they leak it? What kind of information did they leak?
We then send an email with all this information to the authorities and they will most probably tell us how and when they will be investigating this breach and what they will do about it.
Finally, we should change all our passwords for sensitive accounts like our email account(s), online banking account(s), social media accounts(s), work account(s), etc.
We should also make up a list of questions for each site or service where we had an account with sensitive information (username, password) and answer them all correctly before changing them again if needed.
Conclusion
So, if you were a victim of a data breach, then you know what to do. If you haven’t been a victim of a data breach yet, then you should know who to report it to and how to do it in case that happens.
