Published on July 21st, 2019 📆 | 6168 Views ⚑
0James Walker: Take the initiative when precious data is hacked
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We trust businesses and organisations with a huge amount of our data. But what happens when that trust is misplaced?
Millions of people got a nasty surprise recently as British Airways and Marriott Hotels were given enormous fines for allowing their customerâs data to be compromised. But these businesses are just the first to be fined under the new GDPR rules â expect many more to follow. Over the last year banks, ticket companies, retailers and many other business sectors have hit the headlines either for revealing their customersâ private details or having computer systems that hackers found easy to compromise. But if youâve been affected,what are your rights?
Well, the rules say that a business has to tell you if youâve been âseriously affectedâ by a hack or data breach. Of course, many firms simply donât know the scale of the hack or what some fraudsters may or may not have seen. So weâd expect them to tell you if thereâs a possibility your data has been compromised. However, donât wait for them to get in touch. Make a complaint or send an enquiry to them if youâre concerned â you can do this through Resolver for free by visiting the website below.
Your rights
Traditionally, itâs always been rather hard to draw a direct link between your data being compromised and fraudsters stealing money from you or using your identity as a result.
Thatâs why Resolver believes that more resources must go into tracking the sources of fraud, rather than just patching things up after the fraud has occurred â tell your MP! However, if you are making a complaint to a business that you think has compromised your data hereâs what to mention:
ï” List any unique or specific data that the business had that you know has been used by the fraudster. This could be passport numbers, reference numbers, passwords or security questions and their answers.
ï” Explain what happened with the fraud and how it occurred after or around the time you heard the news of the data breach.
ï” Explain what youâve lost in terms of actual money and money youâve lost as a âconsequenceâ of not having funds or being able to use them.
You should also explain whether the fraud has had an emotional impact on you if youâre looking for further compensation.
What to do if youâre âšworried your data has âšbeen compromised
ï” Change your passwords. Fraud is actually really low-tech. Fraudsters find one password and username and enter it in to every shop, bank or credit provider to see if they get a hit.
ï” Replace them with different passwords for banking, shopping, fun stuff and bills and utilities. That way if one âbatchâ of passwords is compromised you donât have to spend ages going through each website.
ï” Keep an eye on your credit report â though just the free ones. You should never have to pay the full ÂŁ15 a month for the âpremium serviceâ. You have the right to your full âstatutoryâ credit file for free and you can change or dispute things too.
ï” Your bank or card providers can shut down accounts and transfer the details over to a new one in a worst case scenario. This includes all your regular payments. Donât be afraid to ask for this.
Gloss