Highlights:
- In recent headlines, about 250 million Microsoft users data has been compromised.
- While those numbers look little scary, it wasn’t quite as dangerous as it sounds.
Here are some important details of the breach and the safe ways you can help keep your data safe from further misuse.
Most importantly, at present, your personal info is probably safe. It was Microsoft’s fault as the company accidentally left a database of customer service records exposed for two days before solving the issue.
The database contained information on 250 million people. However, very little of it is actually usable. Almost all personal information was fixed from the records, except some email and IP addresses.
Thus, even if your info was exposed, hackers probably can’t do much with what was there. Nevertheless, they still might try.
According to Microsoft, it found no evidence the database has been accessed for “malicious use,” but the company warns that exposed emails could be used to send phishing attacks from accounts posing as official Microsoft support.
For example, a hacker could take details of email exchanges to send the user a fake follow-up about their issue with malicious links that redirect to fake login pages that steal your login info.
To safeguard yourself, you should keep an eye out for random “Microsoft Support” emails if you’ve used the service in the past. Avoid clicking on any random links you that you feel the slightest bit unprompted. Therefore, there’s little to worry about with this data breach.
