OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Massive data breaches are grabbing headlines this year.
Last month at Marriott, hackers stole credit card numbers, addresses, and phone numbers of 500-million people.
Just days later, Quora, a question and answer website said security breach compromised the data of 100-million users.
And earlier this year, hackers stole the login information of 150-million people for Under Armour's app "My Fitness Pal."
"Breaches happen," Lisa Cameron, Director of Education, HRD and Housing at Credit Advisors Foundation said. "Be aware. Hackers get into things."
Cameron said you have to be the one protecting your own personal information.
"If you're starting with a new doctor or something like that," Cameron said. "And they're requesting a ss number ask them why they need it. Do they need the entire number or do they just need the last four digits? How are they going to protect it if they insist they're going to need all of it."
She says, people spend an average of 20-hours cleaning up identity theft.
"A lot of it is self curative," Cameron said. "There is no agency that is going to take the lead for you. It's something you're going to have to do for yourself. That's why it's so important to be aware of a day to day basis of how your letting your information be spread about in public."
Filing police reports, contacting the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission are good places to start but nothing will fix your credit overnight.
USA Today complied a list of the top data breaches in recent years including: Yahoo!, Marriott, MySpace and Under Armour.
