When you read about 500 million people being hacked, as in the Marriott breach, the number is inconceivable. A distance ensues. How could such a massive number have anything to do with me? And yet, as CNET writes, this deer-in-headlight scenario is damaging our ability to understand just how dangerous data breaches are.
Data breaches make crimes such as identity theft and other scams much easier for criminals to carry out…After your data gets stolen, it often goes up for sale on black market websites, where criminals can buy it and then pretend to be you.
At this point I’m not sure how many times I’ve had to call my credit card company to request yet another card, hoping they’ll cancel those charges that I had no part in. Even this number is dwarfed by the “suspicious activity” texts I’ve received. These are only the instances that have bubbled up into conscious awareness. Who knows who is me on the black market at this point.
One of our portfolio companies, Rubica, understands this problem well. As Business Insider wrote in 2017 about this increasing problem,
Unlike identify theft, which exposes basic personal data enabling access to accounts or a new line of credit, a cyber hack on an individual could cause them to lose control of their digital life almost entirely, according to Rubica founder and CEO Roderick Jones.
To give users at least some piece of mind, Rubica has partnered with PURE insurance to offer $1m in insurance coverage, protecting assets and personal data if a hack occurs. Though long available to companies, this pivot to offering such plans to individuals marks another era in the ongoing war on data—a battle that, like it or not, we’re all involved in.
And if you were part of the Marriott hack, check out Rubica’s 5 tips to protecting your compromised data.
