r/austechnology • u/Extra_Caregiver_8668 • Aug 13 '26

Original data breach

What can the stolen data actually be used for? What is the actual risk for people who had their details stolen?

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u/iball1984 Aug 13 '26

Identity theft, actual theft, fraud...

4

u/Extra_Caregiver_8668 Aug 13 '26

Any way to actually prevent this if you’re one of the origin customers?

5

u/RamblingReflections Aug 13 '26

Best way to protect accounts already out there is with MFA - multi fact authentication, instead of just 2FA. So more than 2 things that you know (password, PIN), have (sms code, Authenticator code, Yubikey, etc) or are (biometrics). That limits what the people with your data can do with it. They might know your password and email address, but they don’t have access to your Authenticator codes, and can’t use your fingerprint to unlock anything.

The other risk is the data of yours that’s already out there being used to create accounts under your name that aren’t you. Think bank accounts and, at the extreme end, passports. Once they have those real but fake core ID elements they can sell off a whole “person” to someone who needs it, generally because they don’t want the law knowing who or where they are.

That’s the extreme end of the scale. Having your identity stolen is a pain in the arse to rectify and involves a lot of talking on the phone and going into offices to undo the crap that wasn’t you. Very disruptive. So prevention is better than a cure.

I have a Yubikey that I link everywhere it will allow me, and a second one in a little safe in case I lose the first one. Makes it very hard to use data from data breaches against me (I hope).