Having a loan or bill go to collections is bad enough, but now one of the largest debt collection agencies in the US has revealed that it has been the victim of a Data leak in which the borrower’s information was exposed online.
As reported by beepcomputerFinancial Business and Consumer Solutions (FBCS) has begun notifying affected inpiduals after hackers recently accessed the sensitive personal information of approximately 1,955,385 people.
As a national graduate debt collection agency, FBCS collects unpaid debts from credit card companies, healthcare organizations, auto dealerships, student loans, and utilities. However, unlike other companies you do business with, if one of your loans or invoices ended up in the hands of FBCS, you will be stuck with them.
Here’s everything you need to know about this recent data breach along with some tips and tricks on how to stay safe after your personal or financial information ends up in the hands of hackers.
Unauthorized network access
in a data breach notice (PDF) Submitted to the Attorney General’s office in Maine, FBCS explained that hackers first breached its network on February 14. The unauthorized actor remained there until February 26 and during that time, they were able to “view or acquire certain information on FBCS.” grid.”
During that 12-day period, they could have accessed full names, Social Security numbers (SSN), birth dates, account information, and driver’s license or ID card numbers for nearly 2 million Americans.
With this information in hand, the hackers behind this breach can easily launch targeted phishing attackscommit fraud or use Social engineering for identity theft. While FBCS has not provided affected inpiduals with free access to one of the The best identity theft protection services.has enrolled them for 12 months of credit monitoring through the company Cyex.
At the same time, the company also says it has implemented additional security measures in a new environment to prevent incidents like this from occurring in the future.
How to stay safe after a data breach
If you received a data breach notification like the one linked above, the first thing you should do is take advantage of FBCS’s offer for 12 months of credit monitoring. This way, if your SSN or other personal information is used to commit fraud or even identity theft, you will be alerted immediately.
While access to an identity theft protection service would have been better, credit monitoring services can still be useful as a warning sign. Likewise, you also want to keep a close eye on all your financial transactions and bank statements to make sure no one else is using your accounts.
Since so much personal information was exposed online as a result of this data breach, you should also be very careful when checking your email. The hackers behind this breach could use your information to create more convincing scam and phishing emails. In this case, you want to avoid clicking on links in these types of emails and you definitely don’t want to download any attachments as they could contain dangerous malware.
It’s also worth noting that these emails will often try to instill a sense of urgency for you to click or respond. However, if you stay calm and don’t let your emotions get the best of you, you should be fine.
Since we might be dealing with malware in addition to phishing and social engineering, you should use the the best antivirus software with your PC, the the best antivirus software for Mac with your Apple computer and one of the the best antivirus apps for Android on your Android phone.
We may possibly learn more about this incident through FBCS at a later date, but for now, affected inpiduals should be very careful as hackers will likely try to use all of this stolen data in their attacks.
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