If you haven’t taken all (or any) of the data breaches seriously….. wtf

I first discovered my data / identity was stolen 2013 when I got a bill for a phone purchase. With a little research, I found out that someone bought a phone in a store in a state and in a city that I literally have never set foot in.

All 3 major (and the smaller 5) credit reporting companies have been hacked with loss of data. You don’t need to be online … ever … at all …. to have your info including your SS and banking info stolen.

Dark web monitoring services show that ALL of my personal info has been exposed since at least 2020 including my SS and phone number, address, waist size, ect….. OK, luckily not my waist size.

I use monitoring services and routinely visit official web sites to check if things have been altered. You should too.

From Bitdefender: Data leak at digital identity verification provider exposes 1 billion records

A publicly accessible database containing about 1 billion records from 26 countries was recently identified by Cybernews investigators.

The exposed instance appears to belong to IDMerit, an AI-powered digital identity verification provider serving fintech and financial services companies, according to researchers.

From INC: How to Know if You’re Affected by One of the Largest Data Breaches in U.S. History

The security breach at Conduent, which provides printing, payment, and document processing services for some of the country’s largest health insurance providers, keeps getting bigger……

Earlier this month (Feb 2026), the total number of victims was estimated at 15.4 million. This week that number was revised to more than 25 million—and it could go higher still.

https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/hotforsecurity/leak-at-digital-identity-verification-provider

https://www.inc.com/chris-morris/conduent-breach-how-to-know-if-youre-affected-largest-data-breaches-u-s-history/91308076