Latest Data Breach: 2,000 Social Security Numbers Released

By Alisa Fetic

From a young age, most Americans are taught to protect their Social Security Number, not sharing it with anyone aside from an employer or financial provider. No one would think that the federal government itself could put such information at risk, making people vulnerable to identification theft, yet that’s just what happened.

A Washington Post report shared that, about 2,000 Social Security Numbers were released in hundreds of records that were posed online as a part of the January 6^th Committee. The information contained the numbers of a wide range of people who were a part of President Trump’s cabinet, federal judges, and numerous others including people who visited the White House in December of 2020.

Imagine Congress exposing your Social Security Number on a website. That’s just what occurred.

What Is the Risk?

Social Security Numbers are a key component of data that people can use to create fake identifications. This along with a person’s address and other minimal data could help with opening bank accounts, create credit card files, or used in the production of fake identification cards. In addition, this bit of information could be used to gain access to financial records and legal documents since it is so commonly used as a way to prove identification.

Though the federal government removed the spreadsheet containing that data from the website it was on, the data was exposed and put all of those individuals at risk. The result of this is that now those individuals have to take aggressive (and sometimes costly) measures to protect their information such as:

Freezing their credit
Changing passwords
Contacting banks and other financial organizations to report risk
Checking their credit reports for any evidence of a stolen identification
Using multi-factor authentication to protect all of their credit accounts online
Using credit and account monitoring tools

How Redaction Software Could Have Eliminated the Risk

There’s no real understanding of how a mistake like this could occur so carelessly especially at this level, but the use of redaction software could have eliminated the risk to every one of these people.

This type of software works automatically to remove sensitive information from material. That means that, before being put online, this software could have scanned those spreadsheets, recognized the numbers present, and then erased them, blocked them out, or otherwise sanitized the data so that it could not be seen or used by anyone else.

Utilizing redaction software like this – whether for home use or for business – is a simple step towards protecting sensitive data. It is one of the most effective methods of ensuring this type of data is not exposed because it does not rely on person to manually detect and remove the data themselves.

In this situation, it could have eliminated those Social Security numbers, preventing the risk to 2,000 people from data being shared. Consider the value of incorporating the use of redaction software into your business and daily life to minimize your risks.

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Dec 21, 2022

Latest Data Breach News Story

By Alisa Fetic The breach of Optus' customer database is the latest data breach story to rock the news. The data breach exposed the personal information of hundreds of thousands of customers, including their names, dates of birth, and phone numbers. As a result, Optus began notifying customers who may have been affected by the breach. On their website, they posted a statement stating that it is collaborating with the Australian Cyber Security Center to reduce any threats to customers. Optus also reported the "strange activities" to the Australian Federal Police, and an investigation was launched to determine who has been accessing the data and for what reason. The company assured its customers that it would provide updates as they become available. They also advised them not to use passports for online identification until the matter is resolved. Optus also notified its customers to be alert for any fraudulent activity they detected. Furthermore, they should secure their online accounts using two-factor authentication and unique, complicated passwords. But how could this data breach have been prevented? How Optus Could Prevent Data Security Breaches Redaction Redaction is a way to hide sensitive information from the public view. It is commonly used in the legal and financial industries to protect confidential information that criminals or competitors may use. Redaction is also used to release information about a client, such as names and addresses, to prevent cyber criminals from learning more about them. The process can be done manually by hand-writing over the original document or electronically by using computer software like Objective Redact or CaseGuard. More Ways Optus Could Prevent Data Security Breaches Install Firewall Software A firewall protects from hackers by blocking unauthorized attempts to access or modify network data or control systems. It also prevents intruders from using your computer as an entry point into the network or accessing sensitive files on it. There are two types of firewall software: hardware-based and software-based. Hardware-based firewalls include routers and switches that protect the entire network by restricting all traffic passing through it. Software-based firewalls run on a single computer and can be set up at home or in business premises to separate work and private networks. Encrypt All Customer Data Encryption is a process that transforms plain text into cipher text. This transformation prevents someone from viewing or accessing your data without the proper key needed to decrypt it. In this way, if a hacker were to break into your system and steal passwords, they would not be able to access any other information in the system because all their passwords would be encrypted with that one key. Encrypting client information helps prevent hackers from gaining access to them while being transmitted between servers and users in a network. Limit Employee Access to Crucial Company Data To do this, businesses can implement policies limiting how much access each employee has to critical company data. These policies may include: A password policy : Allowing employees to log in with a password rather than using their name and social security number (or other personally identifiable information) as their username will help ensure that no unauthorized person can access your system. Wrap-Up On Optus's Data Breach Data breaches can have a devastating effect on affected companies, not to mention their customers. In reality, they are one of the biggest threats to the corporate world, yet many companies lack a sufficient defense against them. All it takes is one mistake to let a hacker in, and they can wreak havoc on your data. Companies should take caution by using measures like redaction to ensure their client's data is safe.

Nov 15, 2022