More records are stored online than ever — and it's becoming increasingly common for large swaths of personal data to fall into the hands of cybercriminals.
Over 4 billion records have been stolen or accidentally leaked in the past decade, according to data collected by Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, with more than 7,000 separate breaches in that time, and the frequency of mega-breaches that compromise tens or hundreds of millions of people's data is on the rise.
Most recently, a hacker published the personal data of 533 million Facebook users online for free, Insider reported Saturday, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, account IDs, and bios.
Cybercriminals use leaked personal data as a starting point for countless other scams. Stolen records are regularly circulated online by cybercriminals and used for fraud, while hackers can try to break into companies' systems to deploy ransomware or extort them.
Here's how to determine whether your data has been exposed in a breach and how to protect yourself.
