{"id":20992,"date":"2021-06-30T13:57:32","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T17:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/?p=20992"},"modified":"2022-04-27T14:28:49","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T18:28:49","slug":"leaks-and-breaches-the-what-how-and-why-you-must-protect-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/leaks-and-breaches-the-what-how-and-why-you-must-protect-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaks and Breaches: The What, How\u2026 and Why You Must Protect Yourself!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You read about them in the news, or \u2014 you receive notices about them in the mail or on your everyday personal social feed. And no, it\u2019s not just you: they\u2019re happening more often, and getting more brazen and serious all the time. Large scale data breaches, leaks, and hacking attacks occur multiple times each day. Estimates for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">major (<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">large-scale, corporate)<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">data leaks ran upwards of 2000 in 2021 \u2014 and of course smaller-scale hacks aimed at private users are happening far more often \u2014 think more along the lines of 2000 attacks <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">per day.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leaks can be caused in a wide variety of ways.\u201d Emilio Simoni, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Director of Cybersecurity at PSafe\u2019s dfndr lab<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, notes: \u201cHowever, the usual result of a breach is that the stolen data is put to use for financial gain or leverage.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Common methods of using data for financial gain:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Stolen financial-information<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (like credit card or bank numbers) can immediately yield goods or dollars, and they\u2019re often used quickly to do just that \u2014 but, Simoni notes: \u201cNot always immediately, and not always in noticeably large amounts.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Stolen passwords and personal data<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are used as keys or leverage to gain financial information, or to apply ransoms;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Hijacked \/ Frozen technology<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> offers another means for criminals to get leverage and ransoms: hackers \u201clock-out\u201d hard drives or create denials of service for networks from which users must \u201cbuy\u201d their way out<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Stolen email, phone numbers, and social ids<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are regularly used for scams that prey on the unsuspecting, and often, on the good-natured and helpful \u2014 targeting the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">person<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and known vulnerabilities of human nature.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Identity theft <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014 the use of detailed personal information to open new credit accounts and \/ or steal from established accounts.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Practically speaking, leaks occur in a variety of ways \u2014 some quite technical, and some not very technical at all:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Credentials that are stolen or insecure:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> As noted above, credentials can sometimes be the treasure that gets robbed, and leveraged later. Of course, they can also provide the path in for the thieves. The number of data breaches caused by weak passwords, like passwords or last names or birth dates is\u2026<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">way too many!<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Unhappy (or careless) employees: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both can be devastating, and as you might guess, in corporate settings there are usually plenty of both. This is why companies have to plan for the possibility that their personnel can go rogue..or just inattentive. No good security policy relies entirely on the integrity and personal conduct of human resources \u2014 but unfortunately, far too many do.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Vulnerable softwares: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Commercial and enterprise software is designed to be safe \u2014 but hackers are ever watchful, and tirelessly work to find and exploit software vulnerabilities.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Real world vulnerabilities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Hard drives and devices of every kind are smaller than ever, hold more information than ever, and they\u2019re more portable than ever: that means physical compromises and seizures are an increasing threat.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Yes, you\u2019re at risk. But here\u2019s how you can protect yourself.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Good \u201chygiene\u201d with your digital devices means committing to the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, make sure you use strong passwords \u2014 and use only one password for each app or site that requires one.\u00a0 Stay vigilant, and if a site or app is compromised, change your password immediately!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next, try to install only the apps that you really need and use. Loading up your device with three or four apps for every purpose is a dodgy game. Whenever in doubt, go with a leader in the space, or look for apps from developers you already know and trust.\u00a0 Do a little background checking and make sure that cool new app is coming from a known and trusted provider.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, make sure you have a full-spectrum security solution on your devices:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>An excellent way to protect yourself is to use a security application like dfndr security Pro, which covers your data and your device.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For app security, dfndr security Pro features a dedicated <\/span><b>Safe App Installer<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that can tell you if the app you\u2019re about to install has been identified as malware.\u00a0 This is exactly what the Safe App Installer does: it AUTOMATICALLY protects you from malware and apps known to compromise your data \u2014 before you even install them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>There are four additional features dfndr security Pro offers to protect you:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Anti-theft protection: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This feature protects against physical loss that (frequently) also leads to data loss: in case of theft or loss of your device, you can lock it down remotely, find the phone on a map; or, activate a loud alarm to find it nearby. You can also get a picture of the thief, and wipe the phone of your personal data.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>App Privacy Scan: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can locate on a map where your app data is going and how it might be used by third-parties.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Unlimited Identity Theft Reports: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These reports provide \u201cperimeter defense,\u201d looking out for privacy vulnerabilities beyond your own device. These reports reveal if any of your information has been leaked, with a one-click check of a database with over 4 billion compromised credentials.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ad-Free:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> As an extra bonus, dfndr security Pro is totally ad-free.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data breaches will continue to occur on both the large and small scale. As Emilio Simoni remarks: \u201cUnfortunately, hackers never take the day off. That\u2019s why our software doesn\u2019t either.\u201d We hope you\u2019ll consider dfndr Pro as your best line of defense to protect your devices and personal data.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Get The Protection You Need Today<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/US\/app\/id1478653786?mt=8\">Click here to try dfndr security<\/a><\/strong> and put all of these features to work securing your phone, your data, and your digital life. dfndr security offers a full suite of protection, constantly updated, to make sure \u201cyou\u2019re safe out there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/go.onelink.me\/U4Bc?pid=MKT_BLOG_BR&amp;amp;c=leaks-and-breaches-the-what-how-and-why-you-must-protect-yourself\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-20273 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Btn_EN-300x55.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"55\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Btn_EN-300x55.png 300w, https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Btn_EN.png 344w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You read about them in the news, or \u2014 you receive notices about them in the mail or on your everyday social feed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":20999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20992"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21106,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20992\/revisions\/21106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}