If you’ve received a data breach letter, it can come in two formats: it can come as a paper letter in the regular mail, or it can come as an email. Or, you may just learn about it without getting the notice but know that you are a customer or a patient of a company or a hospital, so perhaps you’re a member of the class that had their information breached.
If you get a letter, the first thing you should do is obviously read the letter to see what happened, and all of that information may not pertain to you. But the more sensitive the information is, the more it should make you take the next step.
Step number two, to me, would be— and it’s often part of the letter you get—there’s an offer for credit monitoring, and it’s free. The company will offer it for you, and generally, your credit will be monitored by the three major credit bureaus. That’s done to make sure that there are no credit inquiries or someone trying to open an account or do something in your name. But that’s a free service, so you should take that.
If you get the letter and realize that you were a member of the group that had their information breached, you should contact a lawyer. I recommend you go to classactionu.org, fill out the form, and it will come to the law firm Copluit Astro, where a lawyer will contact you to talk about your case.
