CT attorney general offers tips to help protect against data breaches
Not even counting some of the big national leaks like AT&T, nearly one million Connecticut residents have been impacted by data breaches at Webster Bank, Eversource and Yale New Haven Hospitals in just the last year.
More Stories
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong says data breaches are becoming more of an issue following the announcement from AT&T this past weekend that information from 73 million current and past customers was leaked on to the web.
"I wish I could say that's not true," says Tong. It definitely is true and it's because there's scammers and bad actors out there in cyberspace, and it's really easy for them."
Not even counting some of the big national leaks like AT&T, nearly one million Connecticut residents have been impacted by data breaches at Webster Bank, Eversource and Yale New Haven Hospitals in just the last year.
Tong says the inconvenient truth is that in this day and age, "all of us are exposed. It's hard to avoid doing business, exchanging information on the internet."
The attorney general also says there are ways to be less exposed - especially in Connecticut. The Connecticut Data Privacy Act - which just went into effect last summer - gives people more control over what companies know about them.
Tong tells News 12 that thanks to the CTDPA, "you can opt in or opt out of data being collected - information being collected from you. You have the right to know what's been collected, you have the right to delete that information."
Tong says the best way to keep yourself safe it to share as little data as possible. That means only filling out the bare minimum required spots when you sign up for things. Even then, if something doesn't seem totally necessary, Tong says to try to find away around it.
"If it occurs to you they don't need it," says Tong, "you should call them up and say 'Hey, I would like to register for this event, or I would like to purchase this product, but I do not want to give you my Social Security number, why do you need it?' That could go a long way to protecting you and your family."
Tong acknowledges this is a lot but says people should still feel safe doing what they need to online, adding that if a data breach does happen, the government has ways to protect you.
He says victims should put a security freeze on their credit report, tell the police, and report it to the state Department of Consumer Protection or his office.
Places to report a data breach:
