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the IT team is tracking an increase in
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data breaches putting your personal
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information at risk that's right the
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number of victims really soared in Main
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and all around the country happened last
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year as experts say cyber criminals get
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more Savvy at targeting businesses our
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Dan lamparello is on your side tonight
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breaking down who they're targeting and
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the steps to take if your data is
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exposed almost every day this list on
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the main attorney general's website gets
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longer each line a notification about a
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different data breach we're cons
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consistently seeing a big step up in the
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number of data breaches some only affect
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a single Manor While others show
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thousands had their personal information
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exposed as companies from across the
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country report they were breached Maine
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follows the national pattern James Lee
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is president of the identity theft
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Resource Center an organization tracking
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data breaches Nationwide their latest
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report shows the number of overall data
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breaches decreased by just 1% last year
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but the number of notices sent to
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victims increased by more than
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300% from 49 million in 2023 to 1.7
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20% of individuals and 20% of businesses
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say they were not impacted by a data
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breach in the previous year that's a
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huge number in Maine data obtained by
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the IT team show more than 1.3 million
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people had personal data accessed in a
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data breach in 2024 that's nearly the
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entire state population experts say
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cyber criminals are becoming more
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targeted by using artificial
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intelligence that means they don't have
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to attack as many people because at the
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end of the day what they're really
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looking for is places where there's
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money significance amount of money uh
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that they can either exploit or extort
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which is why if you get a data breach
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notice like this don't ignore it in them
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companies often list certain information
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about what was stolen including things
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like your social security number then
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you can take steps to protect yourself
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like taking advantage of credit
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monitoring that the company may offer
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it's usually free and lasts 2 years you
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should also keep an eye on all your
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accounts and bank statements for
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anything that might be out of the
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ordinary then freeze your credit it's
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free and easy to do with all three
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credit bureaus and is the best way to
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protect your identity that's the only
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Surefire way to ensure your identity
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information is not going to be misused
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to access your credit but experts say
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preventing these breaches from happening
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in the first place needs to be a
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priority especially after four of the
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largest last year including Ticket
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Master and AT&T may not have happened if
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the companies had implemented better
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cyber security practices like multiactor
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authentication we have to understand
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that we're never going to go to zero we
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are never going to be in a world where
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there are no cyber attacks or there are
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no data Bridges there is a world where
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we can manage it better than we are
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today on your side I'm Dan lamparello
