Data Breaches: Protecting Your Personal Information

The hackers have hit a major company again. Learn what steps to take if your information is compromised during a data breach.

T-Mobile faced a data breach on August 20, 2018, resulting in personal customer information to be stolen. Around two million T-Mobile subscribers were affected and had their names, zip codes, phone numbers, email addresses, and account numbers taken from the database.

The company says crucial information, like social security numbers and financial data, were not compromised and all customers affected by the breach will receive a notification letting them know. While account passwords were not stolen either, it’s recommended to update your security information and login.

T-Mobile is encouraging people to reach out to customer support to discuss any concerns.

Here are some steps to take if you were affected by a data breach recently:

• Keep an eye out for suspicious emails, especially if they are being sent to an email address that may have been stolen.
• Change the password to your online banking and any email accounts that were compromised.
• If your password is similar on other accounts to the one that may have been stolen, change them immediately. It’s best to have completely different passwords for every account.
• Contact financial institutions and credit bureaus if you think you need a fraud alert placed on your name.
• Monitor your financial accounts closely. Set up alerts for transactions and check your spending history daily to see if anything looks out of place. If you believe your card has been compromised, turn it off immediately and contact your financial institution.