How to Check if Your Identity Has Been Stolen
Earlier, we explained what identity theft is, why it happens, and what measures to take to protect against personal data leaks. In this article, I will tell you how to check if your data has already fallen into the hands of malicious actors.
I want to note right away: I am not aware of any guaranteed methods of verification that can provide a definitive answer regarding the presence or absence of your personal data with ill-intentioned individuals. All the proposed tools have limited capabilities, but often such checks can reveal a leak.
This is one of those chapters that I recommend all readers of the course familiarize themselves with, regardless of the reasons that prompted them to study this site. I suggest starting this chapter with a small test.
Checking Accounts for Leaks
You can check for the presence of your accounts in publicly known leaked databases by following this link. A data leak does not always accompany identity theft; for example, access to an email account may not be sufficient for identity theft if there is no information there.
Even the theft of a social media account, if there is no real information there, should not be considered identity theft. However, your accounts can be used for illegal purposes, as we discussed in this chapter, and this can lead to consequences worse than identity theft.
Monitoring Leaks
Many personal data end up in the hands of hackers, intelligence agencies, or even become publicly accessible due to leaks from websites. You need to stay informed about leaks, and if your personal data was on a compromised site, at least you will be aware that this data is now in the hands of bad actors.
We explain in detail how to monitor leaks in the chapter dedicated to data leaks. Of course, this method does not provide guarantees, as a leak may go unnoticed or the news may not appear on the suggested sites. Sometimes leaks become known too late, as in the case of Yahoo users, who only learned years later that all their email accounts had been compromised (in addition to the compromise, it became known that U.S. intelligence agencies had access to the mail and...