No matter how diligent you are about privacy and security, there’s nothing stopping a company from leaking your personal data and leaving you exposed to malicious actors. You have to act quickly when there’s a data breach, especially if it’s a serious one.

In 2025 alone, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported fraud and identity theft losses of over $15.8 billion. Leaks in your personal data can be a slippery slope, so here are the steps you should take to address them.

Don’t panic. Take a deep breath. The first thing you need to do above all else is identify what information has been breached exactly. This could be anything as simple as an email address or as serious as a Social Security number.

If it’s the former, it’s likely all you’ll be a victim to is a litany of scam emails, in which case you’ll need to be more scrupulous while looking through your inbox. But if it’s something more than that, you should continue on to the next steps.

Account information like passwords are among the most common leaks, and while it should go without saying that you should change your passwords, you need to take some additional steps to maintain your security.

First, you should use a unique password for every account that you have, so that multiple accounts aren’t at risk because of one breach. You can achieve that more easily with a strong password manager. Second, you need to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) or multifactor authentication (MFA) if it’s available on that account.

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