Your Data’s Been Hacked? What to Do After a Breach

Data breaches have become a common occurrence now. Every other month, a new breach is reported, bigger than ever before. With massive hacks becoming the new norm, people’s personal and financial information is constantly in danger of being exposed and exploited by malicious actors.

In this environment, one mustn't panic every time a new breach is reported. Instead, one must be able to take appropriate measures in case a data breach affects them.

Today, we’ll help you be prepared for that by taking a deep dive into just what’s up with all these incidents and the steps you can take in the aftermath. So, let’s get started!

The New Normal: Massive Data Breaches Everywhere

Today, we are living in a data-driven, digitized world. This brings us the benefits of accessibility, convenience, reduced costs, increased efficiency and productivity, ease of data harnessing, meaningful collaboration, enhanced innovation, and better and more personalized services.

However, this also presents risks such as information overload, social disconnection, lack of privacy, vulnerability to cyberattacks, and data breaches.

Security risk is one of the most critical problems of the current hyper-digitized world we live in. Both the number and extent of data breaches continue to rise at a rapid pace.

Just this month, the cybersecurity media outlet Cybernews reported an incident in which a staggering 16 billion passwords were exposed in a record-breaking data breach. It wasn’t a single breach, though, but rather based on many different datasets that the outlet has been monitoring this year. According to Cybernews:

“Our team has been closely monitoring the web since the beginning of the year. So far, they've discovered 30 exposed datasets containing from tens of millions to over 3.5 billion records each. In total, the researchers uncovered an unimaginable 16 billion records.”

The “humongous” breach involves the login credentials from leading platforms, allowing criminals to access “pretty much any online service imaginable, from Apple, Facebook, and Google, to GitHub, Telegram, and various government services.”

According to the publication, this breach could act as the basis for “mass exploitation” by providing “fresh, weaponizable intelligence at scale.” 

This has potential consequences for the masses, but especially for crypto holders, who may see an increase in targeted account takeover attempts against platforms or custodial wallets linked to their email addresses. The breach, per Cybernews, can also lead to an increase in social engineering attacks.

For companies, data breaches cost an average of nearly $5 million, according to IBM's estimates.

For individuals, though, the damage isn’t just financial but can also be personal, with victims subject to identity theft, phishing campaigns, and credit compromise in addition to feelings of anxiety over how the stolen data will be used by criminals against them in the future. 

The Real-World Consequences for Individuals

While the validity of the ‘16 billion password breach’ story is in question, with some saying that it ‘doesn’t pass a sniff test’ and could possibly be ‘a recycled pile of credentials,’ such a breach isn’t really that farfetched.

Over the years, we have come across many data leaks from private and public organizations alike.

For instance, in June 2025, a data leak exposed 4 billion records, including bank details, Alipay profile information, and WeChat data, covering phone numbers, home addresses, and behavioral profiles. Other examples include a vulnerability that led to the leak of personal data from 533 million Facebook user records across over 100 countries, and hackers breaching Yahoo’s system to leak crucial customer information from over 3 billion accounts.

Just last month, a major data leak from Coinbase (COIN -0.8%) affected about 1% of its users. In this breach, cybercriminals were able to get their hands on everything from names, phone numbers, addresses, emails, government IDs, to balance snapshots, transaction history, and more.

The largest US crypto exchange reported that cybercriminals had bribed its overseas support agents to steal customer data for use in social engineering attacks.

In this extortion attempt, a small group of overseas support staff was targeted and bribed with cash to copy data from Coinbase's customer support tools. This data was then used by criminals, posing as Coinbase, to contact the victims and trick them into handing over their cryptocurrencies.

The exchange has promised to reimburse those of its users who were duped into sending funds to fraudsters. Coinbase estimates that the cost to fix the issue could be as much as $400 million.

So, as we noted here, data breaches are happening all the time, making it crucial for people to have an idea of how to react when the situation arises.

But before we get into exactly what steps you can take if you find your data has been part of a hack, let’s first understand what a data breach is and how it happens.

What Causes a Data Breach and How They Happen

A data breach is a security incident in which sensitive data or confidential information is accessed, stolen, or leaked by unauthorized individuals. Now, the kind of data that is exposed in a data breach includes the following:

Personally identifiable information (PII), such as names, addresses, phone numbers, driver’s license numbers, passport numbers, and Social Security numbers.

Financial information, such as bank account numbers, debit or credit card numbers, tax forms, and financial statements. Data breaches could actually happen in various ways.

A breach could result from unintended mistakes made by an employee. This could be sending confidential information to the wrong email recipient by mistake, failing to encrypt an email attachment, accidentally losing a device like a laptop, hard drive, or flash drive, or inadequately configuring the security settings on a web app or server.

How Insider Threats and Human Error Cause Breaches

While it could be due to an honest mistake of an employee, the breach can also turn out to be intentional and malicious. Such insiders, who have access to an organization's IT environment and harbor negative intentions, may intentionally cause a data breach by leaking sensitive data or selling it to a third party.

External Cyberattacks and Common Breach Vectors

Then there are threat actors who specifically target an organization. In such cyberattacks, criminals gain access to corporate networks and then steal valuable data.

In fact, many cybersecurity incidents tend to result in a data breach. For instance, compromised login credential allows cybercriminals to access the company network with ease. Using credentials to break into a device or network is actually the most common attack vector used by cybercriminals.

These credentials may have been obtained from a previous data breach or cracked using trial-and-error methods. The latter is an example of a brute force attack, where hackers use tools to guess your password. While these attacks can take some time, a weak password can be cracked in just a few seconds.

Phishing scams and social engineering attacks are other methods criminals use to deceive victims into revealing their personal and financial information, thereby gaining access to their systems. 

A common way to trick victims into clicking on a malicious link, visiting a malicious website, or opening a malicious attachment is through malware, also known as malicious software, designed to exploit or harm a computer, network, or server. In 2023, more than 6 billion malware attacks took place globally.

Vulnerabilities present in hardware and software systems are another popular method used by hackers to gain access to a corporate network.

Then there are ransomware attacks, in which cybercriminals encrypt files and prevent access to them until a ransom has been paid in exchange for a decryption key. Usually, criminals also steal valuable data and then use it to extort the company by threatening to expose the data.

Now, if you want to protect yourself from these events, then you can utilize a few simple ways to secure your online account. This includes implementing Two-Factor authentication (2FA), keeping your device up-to-date, and always logging in and out. 

Organizations, meanwhile, can deploy a number of strategies to prevent data breaches, including sophisticated encryption, a zero-trust security framework, security awareness training, and network security solutions like firewalls and data loss prevention (DLP).

Most important of all, as we have noted previously, is education. Keep yourself informed about popular scams and techniques used by cybercriminals so you can easily spot when something is off.

While these straightforward preventative measures will protect you against future issues and prevent you from becoming a victim in the first place, what exactly can you do once you have actually fallen victim to an account breach? Let’s find out.

Click here for a list of public companies that paid off cyberattackers. 

Your Data is Hacked: Here are the Steps to Take

If you’ve been involved in a data breach, then you can take the following steps:

Understand the data at risk

First, check to see if the service provider has contacted you about the security incident, posted any updates about the breach, or made any disclosures about affected customers. 

The fact, however, is that companies often take weeks, if not months, to inform their customer about a hack, if they contact them at all. With organizations prioritizing secrecy and their reputation over protecting their customers, you may have to rely on the news to gather any information about data breaches.

Next, you will need to find out what data has been compromised. Some data pose bigger threats than others and require efforts to match them. For instance, if your email ID is stolen, you are likely to be exposed to phishing or social-engineered attacks. If your nine-digit Social Security number (SSN) gets leaked, it puts you at a higher risk of identity theft.

Update Passwords and Secure Your Online Accounts

In the next step, you are going to have to update your account security by focusing on passwords. After all, the primary function of passwords is to prevent any unauthorized access to your accounts and devices by authenticating your identity.

While you should be regularly updating your password, hardly anyone does. However, if your private information has been compromised, it becomes necessary to change your password. Make sure not to reuse passwords. This means having unique ones for each online account; otherwise, the cybercriminal will use the same login information to access all your accounts.

Also, use strong and complex passwords to really make it hard for hackers to crack them. You can use a password manager for this. 

A password manager is simply a software program that automatically generates and stores passwords for you. It may even provide breach-monitoring services that regularly check if your passwords are exposed in a breach and alert you if that’s the case.

Enabling 2FA will add yet another layer of protection to your online accounts. Another option is passkeys, a user-friendly authentication alternative to passwords that involves signing in with a biometric sensor like a fingerprint or facial recognition, PIN, or pattern.

Monitor your financial accounts

Once your personal or financial information has been leaked or stolen, it’s a must to monitor your account activity, and most importantly, your bank and financial accounts. This means keeping a close eye on any suspicious transactions in your bank or credit card statements. 

You may want to set up alerts to receive notifications for any activity on your account, allowing you to investigate the matter and take appropriate action immediately. Informing your bank is another option, so that your financial provider can also be on the lookout for any fraudulent transactions.

There are actually credit reports that you can sign up for at absolutely no charge. They will provide you with access to your credit data, allowing you to review your credit history and current credit situation. Compiled by credit bureaus, the report includes information about credit cards, credit limits, loans, payment history, and public records, such as collections. 

With data leaks becoming common, credit monitoring services have begun to integrate data breach monitoring to ensure credit cards aren’t being opened in your name. The service is available both as a free and paid option.

A better option, however, is to freeze your credit, which is easy to do and, if done correctly, can eliminate the need for monitoring services. 

To do this, simply ask the credit bureaus, i.e., TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax, to suspend your credit. It won’t cost a penny and will prevent the opening of new credit accounts in your name. While this also means that you won’t be able to open new credit either, resuming your credit service doesn’t take much time, and you can do so at any time you want.

Protect your digital assets

If your crypto exchange or wallet account has been part of a data breach, then you should look for any unexpected withdrawals, unapproved transactions, or changes to your account settings, such as an inability to log in to your account.

If possible, disable withdrawals to prevent hackers from accessing your crypto. Also, immediately transfer any remaining funds to a completely new wallet. Make sure to back up your seed phrase and store your private keys offline. Do not, in any case, store them online, like in your notes app. 

If you have a substantial amount of crypto funds, you may want to consider acquiring a hardware wallet.

Do not forget to contact your exchange or wallet provider through supported channels and explain your situation. You may need to provide details such as wallet addresses, transaction IDs, and timestamps to help the platform investigate your case and potentially freeze assets.

Contact the authorities

Stay alert for phishing emails, as hackers often send fake emails pretending to be an exchange, wallet provider, or bank. Some common signs of phishing attempts involve messages urging you to act immediately, having an unusual sender address, and requesting information that they have no right to, such as your seed phrase or information that the sender should already have, like your account number.

Once you have taken all these steps, don’t forget to report the incident to authorities, such as the cybercrime reporting centre, and provide all the necessary details to expedite their investigation.

Filing a police report in your local jurisdiction is also a good idea that’s worth considering.

Click here for a list of the five best cybersecurity stocks for digital protection.

Final Tips on Surviving a Data Breach

With everything becoming increasingly digitized and interconnected, and organizations relying heavily on digital data, data breaches are becoming more common. 

In the US alone, the number of data breaches has increased by more than 600% over the past decade. In fact, more than 420 million data records were leaked in data breaches during the third quarter of 2024, impacting people worldwide, making it extremely crucial for you to stay educated and prepared.

Falling victim to a data breach, after all, can be a very daunting experience and has the potential to lead to some serious financial issues. However, if you have an idea of what to expect and the actions to take should the situation arise, you can better manage the risks of a data breach and minimize potential damage.

So, if your private information is exposed in a data breach, take a deep breath and act immediately.

Click here for a list of public companies that refused to pay cyberattackers.